The Dickenson County herald. [volume] (Clintwood, Va.) 1927-1930, 1928-12-13
DickenSOnian
Kills Big Bear
While In West

Elijah 5. Counts, OF Ally, mas
recently returned from an ex-
tended trip to the West, where
he visited many people who were
5nce residents Of Dickinson Coun
", among them being: DR.. Ira
Mullins, Hominy, Oklahoma;
Elizabeth (Anderson) Rakes,
5enaca, Missouri; Paul Deel,
Hominy oklahoma the Tillers,
Senters, Orgen; and Kisers, in
Washington State; Paris Counts,
Portland, Oregon; Clement Ras-
nick, Hubbard, Oregon; and Ez-
ekiel Sutherland, Ashland, Ore
gon.
Mr.. Counts had many interest
ing things to tell his people on
his return. Among these were
he following:
On the first day of October
Stuart Chambers, Edgar Tiller,
ind Charley 1iller and I went to
me Convict River to fish. 1t was
about % miles from Morton,
Washington, and we went in cars.
[ caught a dog-salinon that Cay
that almost pulled me into the
river, which | was told they Of
ten did. 1t took all four Of us to
pull it cut. | was using two snare
or snag. hooks. and when il be-
Dan to pull it. broke one prong Of
one. and the boys used a gapa-
hook to help land it. The fish
was four feet long and weighed
from rs to 100 pounds. It had
1913 teeth, and the front ones
were one inch long. These fish
are good to eat. We had to drag
it about a quarter of a mile to
I 20 our cars, for it was too big
and unhandy to carry.
On October 18th I went bear
hunting with Edgar and Charley
FILLER to the Big Jungles" on
5remer Greek, ABOUT s mics
from Morton. just before we got
there, we saw a big wild turkey
IN a big tree. Beth the boys want
ed to shoot it, and even offered
me ten dollars to let them shoot,
9ut / told them we had come
Cear-hunting and il they shot at
he turkey, it would scare all the
aers away. Then we went a
ross Bremen Greek to a "burn"-
fire-scald- to the huckleberries.
There were lots of them there
and bears loved them. On the
edge Of the burn" we found
plenty of bear-tracks. Several
grouse we're on the logs and
bushes, and we decided to go to
he top of the "hurn" and look
down on it for bears. When we
got there We could not see far
lown the hill. | was in front,
Charley behind and Edgar to my
left. | suddenly saw a big black
object on the edge of the "burn'.
Charley fell down and made a
noise. The black thing raised it's
head and started to run. | saw
it was bear, and / raised my
gun and fired. Edgar shot also
'ust after | shot. The bear ran
]ehind big fir tree and into a
thicket. We ran along after it,
nd found a trail Of blood, which
NC followed about . hundred
feet, whore we found It dead, /
was using o Winchester high.
powered gun with copper-jack-
eted bullets. We traced the bull
LET that had hit it in the right
side, gone through it's heart and
edged in its left shoulder. We
cut this bullet out and it was
copper-jacketed, provin that NY
bet killed the bear. Edgar had
hit it further back and away
'r1m the heart. Fer this reason
I got the bear skin. Using my
oocket-krife, | Quilted the bear,
and we tied my galluses and the
boys belts to the bear and put a
pole under them to carry it, but
they ali broke. Then ! took nv
Uocket-knife and skinned ii and
cut it up by piece,meal, using my
pistol to shoot the bones in two
We threw away about two bush
al3 Of fat, We worked all the rest
of the day getting the bear-meat
home about 8 miles unit 8 O
clock at night. In fact we had to
go back next day to get some we
had left. Ny shoulders were bad
" bruised by carrying this meat
1t was estimated that what we
-ook in weighed about 500 lbs.
The ground we went over was
very rough. I tore my shoe-heels
off, wore out my britches, bruis-
ed my shoulders, lost my gallus-
es, and tore up my shirt on this