THRILLS OF CHASE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 26, 12 November 1935, Page 8

THRILLS OF CHASE

HUNTING GRIZZLY BEARS.

ADVENTURE IN THE ROCKIES

On the slides of Mount Robson, tallest peak of the Canadian Rockies, the silver-tipped grizzly, next to the brown bear of the islands of the Behring Sea, the most prized trophy of the big-game hunter, passes his life. His habitat is never far from these slides, avalanches, or chutes, whose rock-and-snow cascades streak the flanks of the mountains, states the “New Zealand Herald’s” Vancouver correspondent. Here, in spring, the bear chews the laxative grasses that purge his system after his winter’s sleep; here with his long white foreclaws he grubs out the whistling marmots and the Indian potatoes which are his summer diet. To; the most successful present-day grizzly hunters, Mr G. L. Pop, a veteran of big-game trails of British East Africa and Central Asia, fell the largest specimen of the silver-tip either he or his two guides had ever seen. “How Dick spotted the first silvertip the day after we arrived, how in poor light and with slippery alder brush underfoot, I executed a clean miss and huddled miserably while George tried hard not to talk to me as I deserved, would take too long to tell,” said the hunter. “But on the same day opportunity broke her rule by knocking twice, and a medium-sized grizzly fell to my rifle after a short stalk and a lucky shot.” The sight of the fine pelt spread under the spruce left George unmoved when he returned from the slide he was covering, Tor he had sighted two bears, one a veritable monster, through powerful glasses. In late afternoon the trio set out in their direction, crossing the valley, so that their scent would not reach the game. Two hours later Dick signalled from his position, high on the third slide, that he had spotted bear. Keeping well to the edge of the slide, where the timber fringe began,” said Pop, “I started to work forward on my stomach toward the top. The grizzly ambled into' a gully and out of sight, so I half stood up and reached the shelter of a minor hump, drawing closer to him. At that moment the fickle wind of the high country began to change, so that my scent was wafted straight, toward the quarry. Dick was not far behind. I plucked my nose to signal that the wind had altered, and stole forward. When I gazed down from the hump the silvertip had got my wind and was skirting the alders at a gallop for the heavier timber. . “Just as I lifted my rifle a great dark monarch poked his head from the brushy cover that had screened him until now. He was off on the instant, shambling rapidly after his fellow for the shelter of the woods, less than two hundred yards ahead. ' I let him get clear of the alders and then opened fire. As I sighted for the third shot I knew it was now or never. My Springfield cracked like a 'whip in the icy stillness; but, a black hulk, with low-slung head and swaying shoulders, the bear plunged on toward the chaos of rock and alder where no bullet could find him. As well try to stop an avalanche as stop him. With a sense of defeat I watched him gain the low bank at the head of the slide. His muscles ■hurled him forward and upward ; then his paws slipped, the great forepaws that had never failed him until now, and he slid back slowly, to settle at the fourth shot into a nondescript mound of flesh and fur, with sanctuary one short lunge from the tip; of his snout.

“That it had been my good fortune to bring down a rare p>rize I knew, but just how rare a one I did not realise until we came to make a detailed examination. The hide was in splendid condition, deej black, with a beautiful silver shading to the hair. He measured nine feet from tip; to tip.”