Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1910-02-24
IN GRIZZLIES NEST
Hunter Pursues BruIn and Sud-
denly Discovers Five Others
Quintet Of Shots Kills All Of Them
Washington Naturalist and MINI
rod Gives Details Of His
Exciting Encounter.

Spokane, Wash-"I shall never for
get the first time saw the trail Of
grizzly bear. II for no other reason
than that for several years II and its
maker interested me. cost me many
exertions, brought me uncounted dis
appointments and, finally, figured In
the most successful encounter ever
had with bears"
William H. Wright, naturalist and
grizzly bear hunter Of Spokane. who
has spent quarter century In western
forests studying what he calls the
noblest wild animal of North Amer
ica." made the foregoing observation
as an introduction to q story of his
early experiences In the Clearwater
country, southeast OF Spokane. where
he brought down quintet of
grizzlies with five shots In as many
minutes.
The veteran, who Is familiar with
every range OF mountains from Alaska
to Mexico, utterly upset lot of pre-
conceived notions as to the sort Of a
"critter" he found the grizzly to be In
his native wild, discrediting. too. a
great deal of the material received
from the oldfashioned hunter, with
reference to the animals vindictive
fierceness and marvellous endurance
He also put down the legend that the
grizzly could not be killed with a sim
gle shot, attributing this to the lack of
powder In the guns and ammunition
employed In the early days. He has
killed scores Of bears with single
shots. Here is the story Of one Of
the greatest feats in the Idaho woods
In his own words:
The trail In the canyon was hun
dred feet wide and had been worn by
an old and large animal. The ground
on the sides of the gully was too hard
to show his footprints; but, coming
and going, he always seemed to cross
at the same spot, and / thought 1t
would be an easy matter to watch the
trail and shoot the bear.
"As I had never succeeded in get
ting In sight of the bear in the can
yon itself, decided to watch the hill
side and perhaps catch him as he
came out to feed; 30 selected point
which commanded a view Of the whole
hill. and every day from daylight till
| dark found me on the lookout. seated
In little clump of Ar trees.
AT last there came a rain. II be-
gan In the night and kept up until
about one o'clock In the afternoon of
L "a AL do Nd In "a "a
that did not venture out In the morn.
ing. In the afternoon, thinking that
this might be Just the time the old
bear would select to go berrying, ]
braved the weather When | reached
the mrs and took a look at the hill.
side. there sat an old grizzly about
a hundred yards above the brink OF
the canyon and 800 yards from me-
busily engaged In pulling down
branches and eating berries.
| II Immediately began the sneak OF
my life. / did not, even at first, think
Of walking. | simply got down on the
ground and 'snaked' 1t. worked along
slowly. 30 that the bear had moved
quite a distance up the hill before
finally got within reasonable range
and even then ] kept on until I was
within 80 yards before finally making
up my mind to risk shot
Il then crawled behind bunch OF
bushes and, without getting up. looked
the ground over to see what the
chances were of the bears getting
back into the canyon in case failed
to drop him. Down there In the can
yon / had watched 30 long and &c
vainly stood the largest bear I ever
saw.
Il wanted both. and thought | saw
my way to getting them. l therefore
dropped out of sight, wormed my way
down hill bit farther. waited till the
two bears we're about hundred yards
apart, and then crept to the top of 9
slight ridge and found myself 40 yard,
from the big one and so yards from
the other.
| nj. ~