Valdez daily prospector., 1916-07-19
LONE PROsPECTOR ATTACKED BY BEAR
BADLY BITTEN THROUGH LEG
Met Animal Suddenly in Trail While on Way from Talkeetna-Beat An imai Of with Stick-Hard Strug- gle to Reach Roadhouse.

4. F. Busch. prospector, was an acriyd. iu town last evening or the NaldeZ-F'airbanl;s stage. lie is suf- .ecins from 6 badly lacerated leg, in- tiicted by brown bear ard tells the following story of the encounter with bruiu.
 Busch had been prospecting for the past ;Wo years or the headwaters of tile 1aiheetLa river. and running out of grub started for Valdez to re- plenish his supply. lie trayeieG alone and Was unarmed with the exception Of a hunting knife, which he carried III his pack. He made the trip with out incident until about eight miles from Simpsons roadhouse, on the EaldeZ-Fairbanks road. At this point. about six o'clock on the evening of July s, Busch was following the trail through a thick growth of bushes when he suddenly came upon huge brown bear trotting up the trail to- ward him. Neither saw the other un- til they were within four or five feet of each other. As the bear rushed at him Busch struck him over the head with a willow stick he was using as a cane. The bear passed him and turning, grabbing his leg between the knee and ankle. sinking his teeth entirely through the leg and twisting the knee badly. Busch fell to the ground, and while prostrate continu- ed to beat the bear over the nose with the stick until ne let go his hold and started away. After going short distance the bear evidently concluded to again tackle the man, and turned back. Busch shouted at the top of l his voice and the bear hesitated and i finally took to the brush and disap- found that the injured leg was so badly lacerated and twisted that he was unable to stand. He has a can vas sack of provisions in his pack
 Dumping out the grub he made a bandage of the sack with which he bound up the injured member. He then crawled back on the trail until he found couple of dead trees from
 which he fashioned a rude pair Of erutches. With this assistance he started to cover the distance of eight miles to the rOadhOuse. So painful did the wound become that it took
 him 20 hours to make the rOadhouse.
 where he arrived at o'clock the nex- afternoon, completely exhausted. He remained at the roadhouse for eight days, giving his wounded leg such treatment as was available until the stage came through, on which he came to town. The wounds are heal subsiding, and bids fair to be cured within a short time, but the twisted knee is still in bad shape, preventing 1 the use of the limb.
 At the time of the attack Mir
 Busch wore high-top pacs and heavy woollen socks, both of which show the holes where the teeth of the bear passed through. MT. Busch is resting comfortably at the St. Elias, where he has had the injured leg dressed and strengthened. and expects to be out in about two weeks.
 The injured man is pioneer of the north, having been for number of years in the Yukon and Panama cOun
 try He is a cook by trade, and was the owner of large hotel at Dyke man. He left there to go to the Chis- ana during the rush to that place, but
 finally went to the Nelchina country. and later to the Talkeetna.