New Britain herald., 1928-08-01
-FOUR KODIAK BEAR
. FALL BEFORE GUNS
Hunters Reach Goal Of Their
Travels in Alaska
(BY ]. VANCE)

We have been leading up, for
quite while, to the climax of the
hunting trip which Joe Lamb and
!. of New Britain, Dick Topham, of
Boston, and Bill Pape, of Water
bury, took into the Alaskan coun-
try with the chartered yacht West
ward said climax being the at
tainment of our objective, the ac-
QUESTION of one or more specimens
of the enormous kodiak bears
which live in the snow-covered
peaks and the grass-grown tundras
of the Aleutian Islands and the
Alaskan peninsula. We got four of
them, as has been before explained.
three OF the party bagging the four
and / failing in my quest. Through
the kindness of the other three l
shall have a specimen, though l did
not shoot him.
Joe Lamb hunted long and hard
for his bear. He worked as earnest
ly as any hunter who has ever
visited Alaska, unquestionably. and
he was, after q days in the snow
rewarded by the best specimen
which We obtained. about II feet
long, with a skull II inches in
length. During part of the time
! was with him and part of the
time ! was off by myself In another
territory. Though not present at the
shooting, / can visualize his exper-
fence, through knowledge of the
country and the game, together
with the facts that he has given
me, though I was about 200 miles
from him when he finally came up
with the object of his quest.
Joe and l formed the first expe-
dition ashore. going into the coun-
try at Iniskine Bay, otherwise
known as Snug Harbor-why, no
one knows. We were forced to fix
up an old dory to use for water
transportation as the 'Westward"
had left us to deposit Bill and Dick
at other points farther west and
south. After the dory was fixed a.
start up country was made to the
tune of an cupboard motor on the
stern. 1t was beautiful, though
frosty morning. Seven o'clock or SO
and the sun already shining nicely
after being some five hours high.
Flee Before "NilIeewaW"
But we did not get far, five miles
perhaps. when with a whoop and a
howl ''willeewaw" descended from
the snow and stormed along the
water. A "willeewaw" is not an ami
NAL, it is worse. 1t is wind which
blows at an enormous velocity,
comes up In an instant, blows for
an interval, ceases and shortly. as
If 1t had forgotten something the
first time, whoops her up again. 1t
continues for days sometimes and
| dies as suddenly as 1t came. We
saw it coming and made for a point
which stuck out from an island
nearby. Had We not made it our
dory would unquestionably have
been swamped.
Our point was cut off from ap-
proach by land by unscalable cliffs;
it offered refuge from the water
side and a couple of cotton wood
trees with liberal sprinkling of
alders for fire wood. Otherwise the
blast of the willie" swept over 1t
mercilessly. Having arrived, there
We stayed. getting scant comfort
from a fire of green alders. The
wind blew the heat as we'll as the
smoke. If one wanted to get warm
one got smothered and that was
that. We did concoct some coffee
and fry little bacon. We could
not. at first, make even our little
pup tents stay up. For ~ hours we
roasted on our point, with no place
to go but there. Thus passed our
first hunting day In Alaska. Many
other similar ones were to follow.
but our initiation was thorough.
Mosquitoes In Alaska
The next day We made trapper's