Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-26

| thousands OF feet above the others II
| was he whom we sought; but at it's foot
no river wound down toward any sea
at must rise from the opposite side -
| suggested Perry. casting rueful glance
at the forbiddng heights that barred our
| further progress we cannot endure the
| arctic cold of those high-hung passes. and
| to traverse the endless miles about this
| interminable range might require a year or
more The land we seek must lie upon
! the opposite side Of the mountains"
Then we must cross them" / insisted.
I'VE cant do it, David" he repeated.
| We are dressed for the tropics We should
| freeze to death among the SHOWS and
glaciers long before we had discovered II
, pass to the opposite side"
We must cross them [ reiterated 1--WE
will cross them"
| had plan, and that plan we carried
out. 1t took some time
First we made permanent Camp part
way up the slopes whore there was good
, water Then we set out in search Of tho
great Shaggy cave bear of the higher alti-
tudes.
He is a mighty ANIMAL terrible ami
NAL lie is but little larger tran his cousin
of the lesser lower hills, but he makes up
Tor It IN the awfulncss Of his fcroCity and
IN the length ana thickness of his shaggy
coat. 1t was his coat that we were after.
we came upon him quite unexpeCtcdlv
J was trudging in advance along a rocky
tran worn smooth by the padded feet Of
countless ages of wild beasts. At shoulder
OF the mountain around which the path ran
| came face to face with the Titan. 3
was going up for a fur coat. lie was
coming down for breakfast Each realized
mat here was the very thing he sought
with horrid roar the beast charged me
At my right the cliff rose straight IN
ward for thousands of feet
At my left it dropped into n dim abysmal
canyon.
In 'front.' of me was the bear
Behind me was Perry
| shouted 20 him in warning and then
| raised my rifle and fired into the broad
breast of the creature. There was not time
to take aim; the thing was too close
upon me.
But that my bullet took effect was evi-
dent from the howl of rage and pain that
broke from the frothing iowls II didn't
stop him, though.
| fired again, and then he was upon mo
Down / went beneath his ton of maddcned
clawinE flesh and bone and sinew
! thought my time had come | rcmcm-
Der feeling sorry for poor old Perry. left
all alone in this inhospitable savage world
And then of a sudden | realized that the
bear was gone and that | was quite un-
harmed. leaped to my feet my rifle still
clutchcd in my hand, and looked about for
my antagonist
[ thought that I should find him farther
down the trail probably finishing Perry
and so ! leaped i'm the direction I supposed
him to be, to find Perry perched upon a
projecting rock several feet above the trail
My cry of warning had given him time to
reach this point of safety.
There he squatted, his eyes wide and his
mouth aiar, the picture of abject terror and
CONSERVATION.
where Is he?" he cried when he saw
me. Where is he?"
Didn't he come this way?" I asked
Nothing came this way" replied the old
man. But I heard his roars-he must
have been large as an elephant"
"IIe was" | admitted; but where in the
world do you suppose he disappeared tor"
Then came a possible explanation to my
mind. ] returned to the point at which the
bear had hurled me down and pcered over
the edge of the cliff into the abyss below.
Far. far down ! saw a small brown botch
near the bottom of the canyon. 1t was the
bear.
My second shot must have killed him.
and so his dead body, after hurting me to
the path had toppled over into the abyss
| shvered at the thought of how close /,
too, must have been to going over with
him.
1t took us a long time to reach the car
cass and arduous labor to remove the great
pelt, But at last the thing was accom-
plshed and we returned to camp, dragging
the heavy trophy behind us.
Here we devoted another considerable
period to scraping and curing it. When
this was done to our satisfaction we made
heavy boots, trousers and coats Of the
shaggy skin turning the fur in
From the scraps we fashioned caps that
came down around our ears with flaps that
fell about our shoulders and breasts. We
were now fairly well equipped for our
search for a pass to the opposite side of
the Mountains of the Clouds,
our first step now was to move our camp
upward to the very edge of the perpetual |
SHOWS which cap this lofty range. Here |
we built a snug, secure little hut, which :
we provsioned and stored with fuel for
its diminutive fireplace,
With our hut as q base we sailed forth !
in search of a pass across the range.
our every move was carefully noted upon /
our maps, which we now kept in duplicate. /
BY this means we were saved tedious and
retracing of ways already eN-
plored
systematically we worked upward In
both directions from our base, and when
we had at last discovered what seemed
might prove a feasible pass we moved our
belongings to Il new hut farther up.
il was hard work - cold, bitter, cruel
]
but the grim reaper strobe silently In our
tracks.
There were the great cave bears In the
timber and gaunt, lean wolNes--huge crea-
lures twice the size of our Canadian timber
wolves Farther up we were assaied by
enormous white bears-hungry, deNillsh
fellows, who came roaring across the rough
glacier tops at the first glimpse of US, or
stalking us stealthily by scent when they
mad not yet seen us,
IL is one of the peculiarities Of life
within Pellucidar that man is more often
he hunted than the hunter, Myriad are
he huge-belied carnivora Of this primitive
world Never, from birth to death are
hose great bellies sufficiently flled' so al
yays are their mighty owners proving
lbout In search of meat.
Terribly armed for battle as they are
nan presents to them in his primal state
IN easy prey slow of foot, puny OF strength
Il-eauipped by nature with natural weapons
# defense.
The bears looked upon Us as easy meat
)nly our heavy rifles saved us from prompt |
xtinction Poor Perry never was q, raging
ion at heart. and l am convinced mat the
errors of that awful period must have y
aused him poignant mental anguish.
When we were abroad pushing our trail
arther and farther toward the distant