Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-12-21
A CHRISTMAS BEAR STORY.
(By John B. Griffin. }

| (By JOnH Is. GTlIIln.)
EVERY man who has known the
thrills of the hunt and every boy who
longs to invade the wilds with a dog
and a gun will read the following
story with the keenest pleasure. Mr..
Griffin is the greatest hunter of them
all in southern Oregon and tells his
true stories of his dogs and his ex-
periences with ar inimitable style of
his own.)
In this story I am not going to
tell you of a regular bear hunt, but
am going to tell you of few of the
bears that Trailer treed, the fall that
he was three years old. I say few,
for if | would tell you of every one
it would probably take up more space
than the editor would feel like giving
up, as he caught twenty, all told, and
the last one on the day before Christ
mas.
was living on Griffin creek those
days, running a farm four miles from
Medford, and did not have time to
go out hunting very often, so Trailer
got to going out of night and tree
ing bears, foxes, wildcats and now
and then a cougar. In the morning
when / would get up / would discover
that he was gone, and | generally
would go out and listen and, if |
didn't hear him barking, ] would wait
until noon and then | would saddle
horse and strike out. would then
go to the top of what we called the
divide between Griffin creek and
Sterling creek, where / could hear
off either way, then I would follow
along the top of the ridge and every
little while | would stop and listen,
and at last | would hear his bow!
WOW! WOW! Instantly | would throw
up the horn and give it a long, loud
toot to let him know | was coming.
The effect would be magical In
stead of the bow! WOW! WOW! every
few minutes, he and old Lion, my
old standby that helped him tree so
many, would turn loose too, barking
steadily and joyfully, and there was
hunter who felt pretty joyful about
that time, if you will believe me-
/ generally rode my horse until ]
was within two or three hundred
yards of them, then I tied him up
and made my way cautiously up to
near the tree. When | had discov-
cred him l most always approached
behind tree so that he couldn't see
me. After | got close enough I
walked right out and under the tree
as quickly as l could, then had him
safe. There is no danger of them
coming down after you are under the
tree, but, as / have said before, Just
as sure as person undertakes to
rush up to tree where bearshas
been up any length of time, he will
come down, and then you have got
scrap on your hands. So If young
bear hunters will take my advice and
always be cautious about getting up
to the tree, you will seldom ever get
into trouble and at the same time
take no chances on getting dog
killed, or, if not killed, spoiled, for
any number of dogs, after having
been whipped out once, will not
tackle a bear the next time.
Well, as I said in the beginning of
this story, that it was not an account
of regular hunting trip. l will
just give you the stories Of each bear
he treed and the little scraps I had
with few Of them. / used a "A
Winchester in those days, and al
though they are back number now,
we banked on them then and l feared
nothing when had my "A with me.
The first time that Trailer ever
went out on one of these night hunts
was in the fore part of the fall. One