Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-12-21


creek. l listened until / satisfied
myself that he wa sat tree, then ]
got the gun and started out. It was
about two miles, and when | got
there, 10 and behold, 1t was a fox
was little bit disappointed, but
Trailer was awfully tickled to see
me come, so / up and shot the fox
and went back home, but carried the
fox along with me, Trailer walking
behind, perfectly contented. !
skinned the fox and stretched the
hide in good shape, and guess Trail
er thought he had done something
worth while. for he treod four that
week. l began to think Il was going
to he all foxes, but one morning |
got up and discovered he was gone,
and after listening n while | heard
them both away off up this same
canyon where he had been freeing
the foxes. My first thought was an
other fox, but they were barking fur
iously and began to think maybe
it might be something larger than a
fox, so | hurried up. got my gun and
lit out. There was wagon road up
this creek for quite aways, and they
sounded like they were close to the
road, so / stuck to it and, sure
enough, when ! got there / found
them within fifty steps or less of the
road, barking up dead fir tree with
hardly limb on it, and there, only
about twenty feet up, sat big
mealy nose brown bear Gee, but |
was surprised and highly elated, too,
and ! lost no time in shooting him
out, which | did by putting "A bull
let square between the eyes. Over
he went and the dogs piled in on
him and yanked him around until
had to make them quit. | dressed
him and went back home. ate break
fast and hitched up to a rig and
went and loaded him in and brought
him home | took a fellow with me
by the name of Maxon, and we had
to take the wheels off and let the
hind axle down and the bear in, then
we put him forward as far as we
could and raised the hind wheels up
and the trick was done. This bear
weighed several hundred pounds and
turned out several cans of oil. The
meat was fine.
will say right now, while I think
of it, that Trailer never treed an
other fox in that region, that recol-
lect of. l think he passed over the
tracks, feeling they were too insignif
icant to bother with.
In few days more Trailer treed
another bear in his same canyon, only
higher up the creek and farther up
the hillside. This, too, was a large
mealy nose, and l killed him without
any trouble or excitement either.
Shortly after that went up in that
part of the country to try to kill
deer. / had hunted up to the head
of the creek and along on the Sterl-
ing side and back over on the Griffin
creek side without seeing deer, and
was headed down a ridge for home.
The ground was rather open and, hap
pening to look off to my right about
a hundred yards, there stood a big
black bear under an oak tree. The
boughs hung down and he had his
head towards me, dropped down and
looking at me. He stood a little
quartering, so 1 pulled down and
drew a bead on the point of his
shoulder and let drive. At the crack
of the gun down he went, but was up
and out of sight before could shoot
again. There was a brushy gulch
beyond him, and by the time I got
over to where he stood he was down
into that. l could hear the rustic of
the brush at first, then all was quiet.
I went down a short distance and
could see nor hear nothing of him, so
/ came to the conclusion didn't want
him bad enough to go down in the
brush after him, so l went back to
the ridge and went down until |
struck a good open place and sat
down and commenced to blow the
horn. By the way, l neglected to
say that had not brought the dogs
with me, as I did not want Trailer
to get any notion in his head of hunt
ing deer. I satfhere and kept blow
ing the horn for long time, and
finally had the satisfaction of hear
ing Trailer answer me away off down
the hill, coming. Say, my heart
leaped for joy and I never thought
more of Trailer than I did right then.
I commenced talking to him before
he got to me, and he wagged his tail
and was awfully pleased to get to
me. l petted him few minutes and
then I told him to come on. l went
back up and, say, when he struck
that bear track and smelled the blood