Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-12-24
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Chapters From Canada's Jungle
BOOk-The Bear Mascot

bOOk-Inc bear MASCOT
nN A previous visit to Jasper
~ Park in the Canadian Rock
les I have always made it part of
my program to drop into the war
den headquarters of the park and
sandbag my old friend H. S.
Davis for a column dealing with
the private lives of wild animals
or birds, with which he holds the
same sort of communion that ex-
lists between thoroughbreds and
horse trainers.
Nature has no secrets that he does
not share. All wild things are COM
rades with him. This time l asked
for bear story.
can old or a young bear?"
"Both."
"That brings to mind" he said,
"the time when a football club from
Hamilton turned up in the park in
search of a bear mascot.
Securing fifty feet of sashweight
cord they went into the brush and
located a four months cub, appar-
emily alone, which they lassoed and
prepared to make captive. Bad
business in a bear country. Before
they had time to effect huddle
or arrange means for the getaway,
mother bear, accompanied by two
other cubs, turned up apparently
from nowhere and routed the pig
skin kickers, who fled, leaving the
mascot with the sashweight cord
still noosed upon his neck.
"Young bruin, glad of freedom,
bolted for a jack pine and swarmed
into the branches fifty feet aloft,
the cord trailing behind. Mother
bear, bewildered by the long, flap
ping cord attached to her offspring,
Skinned up after him and made
an investigation, which developed
nothing to her satisfaction. She
tried to coax him down, to rejoin
brother and sister bear waiting at
the bottom of the tree.
Young Bruin Hangs Himself.
Stubborn at the outset, but finally
allowing himself to be persuaded,
the mascot, cautiously at first, be-
gan b a k tr C ing downward
through the thick branches, COM
ing presently to grief when the sash
cord, entangled, yanked him from
the lower limbs and frightened as
he slipped into space, leaving the
cub suspended-that is to say, hung.
Quite so.
"Mother bear, already down and
waiting with the other two cubs,
heard the mascot's first wild howl,
suddenly silenced as the moose drew
together. Above, apparently self
executed, the cub, snorting inter-
mittently, writhed upward, using
his paws, got a straddle of another
limb, there to recover his breath.
Up the bole of the jack pine the
old bear again scrambled, further
adding to her complexities. She
couldn't understand why her cub,
making manly efforts to descend at
her request, toppled from his perch
and all but hung himself four times
hand running. In each instance she
boosted him back to safety, but
could not get him free. An Indian
who witnessed the preliminary con-
fusion following the disappearance
of the football team, came in to
Jasper Park and notified the game
wardens of her predicament.
"Mystified by what was occurring
midst the branches of the gallows
tree, she was not inclined to allow
any one to approach the scene Of
action.
An Aerial Rescue
''Ten feet distant from the tree &C.
cupied by the mascot stood another
pine. Whatever of rescue was to be:
tried must be done from there by
the climbing expert, who was ready
with long pole to which had been
woven sharp hunting knife. Moth
er bear resented his every attempt
to reach the tree and scale it. AS
a last resort those present, armed
with brickbats, rushed the mother
bear, pelting her until she changed
her position long enough for the pole
lineman to get out of the danger
zone and install himself in the
tree adjoining the cubs quarters.
Every attempt on the part of the
rescuer to cut away the sash cord
entanglements was frustrated by
the cubs repeated slapping at the
blade tied on the pole. Great eau
ton was necessary to avoid wound
ing the captive, violently opposed
to the efforts that were being made
for his preservation.
"Again the old bear returned to the
tree and made final attempt to
reach her now highly inarticulate
cub, still engaged in batting at the
knife which the lineman adroitly
kept out of range. Presently, in
the midst of our joint maneuvers,
the mascot-endowed with good
luck-twisted himself into a knot
and was rendered helpless to strike
at the long-handled knife designed
for his liberation. With one swift
thrust forward and upward the
blade severed the cord close to the
clubs neck, freed the tension and
I,