MAN FIGHTS BEAR IN LONELY CABIN

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 19

MAN FIGHTS BEAR IN LONELY CABIN

STIRRING ENCOUNTER IN CANADIAN FOREST'S. A bear skin that is at present on its way to a taxidermist shop at Edmonton, the capital of the Canadian province, of Alberta, carries with it a strange tain to account for the slashings and bullet holes it contains. Neil Alien, forest ranger, who is outfitting preparatory to returning to his territory at Gadomin, tells tho story of how it was procured. Near Mary Gregg Lake, in the mountains to the south of tho railway and to tho east of tho boundary of Jasper Park, he had partly constructed a cabin. One night, in company with Walter Wrisley, a lad of sixteen, also from Cadomin, lie look shelter under (he, tar paper which he had hung upon its frame to exclude the snow that was commencing to fall. At about 2 a,in. ’ he, was awakened hy a movement at the foot of his blankets, which he took to be that of a, porcupine. Ilk; rifle, a .32 special, lying handy si, his head. he. prepared Li nil hi.MEclf of a current nuisance of the trail.

He, felt » largo bulk move in the dark, for the. cabin was no larger Ilian a, small room, and noon decided that he had something larger than a porcupine with which to deal. The bear made a heavy lurch towards the door to escape, hut the canvas and the high sill which had permitted a cautious entry forbade the impetuous exit. He became badly entangled in his inability to get outside. Allen" fired the first shot as the, annual stood up on Iris haunches before the door. It pawed through (ho neck, sending iho blood into bruin's windpipe in quantities that almost throttled him. He commenced a wild pilgrimage around the restricted interior after being wounded, until, of tho seven shots lired at him, one took effect, placing him hors; do combat behind the, stove, which, with a dual shove of his back foot, ho threw on to the blankets. So dose had he boon that his fur was singed, in spots, with the flamo of the discharge,. Meanwhile, Wrigley had not been idle. His rifle a .303, lay under the blankets. After the firing of the live rounds in the magazine the bedclothes wore fully alight, the smoke adding to the general contusion arising from the. rifle reports and tho labored cries of the hear. Tho intruder into the cabin was quieted for ever when, while he was still vainly struggling to regain his feet behind the upturned slove, Allen, realising that his magazine was empty and that the bear, if he arose again, would have him at his mercy, slashed him deeply with a hunting knife. Pieces of bannock on the floor, visible after the fray, explained the visit of the four-footed robber. Had the first, shot riot been as effective as it proved in making tho animal wild and blind with pain, the struggle might have had an entirely different ending. As it was. a, marauder of tho trappers’ cabins in tho Mountain Park vicinity for years received its inevitable rewai d.