Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-09-11
Early Day Hunting
On Mount Pitt
(By John B. Griffin.)
Concluded from last issue.)

ing around the head OF 1t we were
surprised to see an old bear and two
cubs come out of the swamp and
walk along slowly, biting off buckle
berries, entirely oblivious of the fact
that we were standing within a hun
dred yards of them. Our first
thought was to let the dogs go after
them, but concluded not to, as we
thought they had had enough for
one day, so we concluded to shoot
the old one and let the dogs tree
the cubs. So we both let drive at
the old bear. and she ran a short
distance and went down. Both dogs
dashed out now and got so close 10
the cubs that they hardly had time
to climb before they were upon
them. One ran away up to the top
and one only went up few feet'
lust out of reach of the dogs, which
set them both wild. We went down
and shot them out, after which we
went to camp, arriving at l o'clock
tired and hungry but pretty well
satisfied with our days hunt. we
laid off till evening, then went out
and picked lot of huckleberries.
The next day was spent in getting
game and taking care of meat. We
left old Trailer in camp for fear or
another bear chase, for in those days
you could hardly keep him from
catching a bear if you let him get
out in the woods.
The next day we started out and
went over towards Four Mile lake.
About two miles from camp as we
were passing along through a big
burn. | saw lying down by big log
125 yards from us, a big buck. He
saw us, but did not get up, SO !
pulled up and blazed away and had
the satisfaction of seeing him roll
over. We started down to where he
/ Law and Bob asked me where | hit
him. told him / thought / had
given him a quartering shot that had
ranged through the heart, but i'm
agine my chagrin when we got down
/ there and | had shot him square be-
tween the eyes. Bob likes a joke
and never let up on me the whole
trip, but when he missed the Sugar
Loaf bear | got even on him, believe
me. The buck had nine points on
one horn and ten on the other. At
ter dressing and hanging him up we
went on. After travelling a mile OF
more without seeing any more game
we came to a small prairie of per-
haps three or four acres, and in pass
ing across it we discovered there
had been a bunch Of elk there. This
set us wild, for if there was anything
on earth / loved to hunt, it was Elk.
! So we set to work to figure out
where they had left the prairie and
the direction they had gone. After
tracking around and around for a
long time we found where they had
left the prairie on the west side and
were travelling up and around the
side of old Mt. Pitt. We followed
along for a long ways and at last
came to where they had been stand
| ing around under some fir trees, and
out in a little opening they had been
lying down, but were not there now.
On we went, as they were easily fol-
! lowed, going most Of the time in
single file, and finally came to a
grassy spot away up on the south
side of Mt. Pitt, facing towards Fish
lake, and there they had great hole
paved out where they had been ly-
ing down. They had moved again,
but we soon discovered that they
had gone out at the upper end of
the glade, but this time they had
swung back east around the side of
the mountain. We followed along
until about o'clock, when the trail
took a turn up hill towards a gap
in the ridge that runs down east
| from Mt. Pitt. We went on up to
the gap and passed through and
turned down ON the other side, and
here we discovered them. About two
hundred yards below us was small
lake, and right out in the middle
was a big buck elk standing up to
his knees in the water. Near the
edge of the lake were two more
smaller ones, and few yards away,
| lying down, was a COW and calf. 1t
was a long shot for IA, but big
mark. We wanted him and wanted
him bad, so we decided to both shoot
at him and take chances on getting
one of the others, so we drew down
and, taking careful aim, fired. He
threw up his head and staggered and
started to wade out. Bang, bang
went the Winchesters, and bang,
bang again. He was out to the edge
now and we could see he was going
to fall, so did not shoot any more,
but ran down the hill to get a shot
in one of the others, but too late, as