A YELLOWSTONE BEAR STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6296, 21 January 1882, Page 7

A YELLOWSTONE BEAR STORY.

It is a -wild and solitary place to spend the winter, -which Marshall and his wife, with a young lady companion did, for the first time last winter, and in this connection he told me a bear story. He said that after visitors ceased coming to the Park last fall, he went to Virginia City for his winter supplies, leaving his wife, children, and the young woman in charge of the place* Near the house in the rear, was situated a dug-out, or root-house, where he stored his potatoes, &c., to keep them from freezing, and to ventilate which ho used a joint of stove-pipe. One morning, during his absence, his wife looked out of the window, and saw a bear pulling down the pipe, and trying to die into the root-house, in which they had also stored most of their provisions. The women were at their wits' end as to what course to pursue. They at first threw tin cans Irom the windows, and managed to distarb Bruin for a few moments, but he soon returned, as he hadlalready Bniffed the good things of that ground cellar, and he did not propose to be feared off with tin cans Mrs. Marshall, being brave enough to be left alone, did not intend to have all of her provisions taken before her eyes, and proposed to load the rifle if her companion would fire it at the bear, which being complied with, a good charge wa3 soon placed in the gun, which was. laid across the window-sill and discharged at his bearship ; but the aim, not being accurate, did not strike him in a vital part, although his actions showed that he was hit. He retreated to the hill-side, sat upon his haunches, took a view of the situation, and then disappeared in the bushes, where he remained. The women were not satisued, and they went after that bear —a very imprudent thing, to say the least; but nevertheless they went, for (as they expressed it) they were afraid he might come back again in the night, and as they were satisfied he was wounded, they wanted to finish him. Loading the rifle again, they went cautiously up the hill-side, until they discovered the bear standing 1 small clearing, when the women prepared fo actton by laying the gun across a log and taking deliberate aim, hitting the animalbehind the foreshoulder, when he ««« »"' ,n § j nM the hill. The women did not stop aee whether the bear was roll.ng or —they imagined the for dear life, dropping the gun . . before for the house, which they r ®^- hen safe j n r a ,s'« his last Ijofe. " and K ot possession of their waTLadedf a?d a third charge gun-, whic make sure he was not Staying'possum. When Marshall came home oighodtho bear, and found it brought down the beam to 3501b5. -He tells the story of the action of the brave women with a great deal of pride; and the young .woipan who did the shooting has become-quita a heroine, —San Francisco Bulletin, ' j