A WONDERFUL WOMAN

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 51

A WONDERFUL WOMAN

DENA ELLISON. CHAMPION BEAR HUNTRESS. crirl in America ivlio has There is ° bcar sca l ps that she S e iost count of them. That girl is ■ lias iost . There are plenty of ! the real ~-1,0 have shot a bear or two I ia somebody else held them still to I L hot By their loving friends they ! “ thereupon been played up as , If? and their advertising has been | Dlfin H far and wide. But the real Diana . fas shot so many bears that she looks ; Jpon a bear affair as too commonplace to | mention. She lives quietly enough, mctaen away from the ivorld by the grim mountains nf Arizona, and her circle of admirers, afthdugh devoted, extends no further than the neighbouring rancnes . She is Delia Ellison, a girl who lives fm- back in the foothills of the Mogolons. near the head of Canyon Creek She is only a young girl, the ‘baby of the Ellison family yet she is known to the country thereabouts as the Cattle n u een of the Mollogons ” and is in reality not onlv that, but’also the champion huntress of the United States. The Fllison home is over a hundred mile* from the railroad, and twelve miles from the nearest neighbour. Ihe Apache Indian reservation comes within a few miles of the ranch, and the Cibique tribe the wildest of the Apaches, headed by John Dazen, make their home on Cibique Creek, less than ten miles away. Indeed, it has been but three years since these renegade Apaches ambushed and killed one of Colonel Ellison’s sons-in-law, and even to-day a constant natch is kept for Them, and a rock fort, stocked with arms and munitions, is always ready in case of an attack, feared ‘because of the killing of their chief years ago by the Deputy Sheriff of Gila County.

Living always in the midst of dangers from Indians and wild beasts, you might expect a large-sized man to be frightened. once in a while, to say nothing of a little girl. But Delia has always looked upon Indians as rather spicy—slio has so few amusements, living down there, that she looks to them for sport. And as for fears—wait until you got to the real story. Colonel Ellison came to Arizona from Texas some sixteen years ago, settling on tho head of Ton to Creek, near Promontory Butte, almost within a stone’s throw of the ‘ Rim,” that vast upheaval of rock stretching half-way across Arizona from east to west, and known as tho Mogoll on range of mountains. Here he brought his family and herds of cattle, together with a pack of hunting dogs, and settled down in a narrow canyon under the rim, where the range was good and hunting the best in the world. * Fruit trees of various kinds were planted, houses and corrals were built of shakes and rails, split from trees in the largest unbroken pine forest in The world, a ditch was dug to irrigate a small tract of land for vegetables, for a family living in this district must raise nearly everything needed. Hero the Ellisons lived for several years, riding tho range in the summer season, roping, branding, and ear-mark-ing the- calves, and gathering steers for market.

In the fall and winter Colonel Ellison spent much of the time with his hounds and one or more of the girls hunting the countless hears and mountain lions, not only for the bounty of 20 dollars each, hut because of their destructiveness to stock. Tho girls soon learned to be as handy as their father with a gun or rope, so that they could rope, tie and brand the wildest steer as well as any man, and .when it comes to handling a rifle or six-shooter most men would have to retire. Of the whole family, however, there was not one who handled a repe, a rifle or a six-shooter with the same neatness that Delia showed. ‘’That child is a horn rancher,” her father said with pride. . H er prowess continued. From bringing down birds and small game; siio , on she came to killing bears. Eight years ago the Colonel found that it was becoming too thickly setP ed 111 his location. So he moved still farther away from civilisation, and took "P las home on the present ranch, where 20,000 head of cattle could roam over 100 square miles. Here he and his laimly found plenty of excitement-. sears and Indians—they became the hokf 5 0i da ‘* y couv 'ersation in the houseDona, was wide awake and interested, bhe sniffed adventure in the air. D ;.j 'V V fi nt ? bout Preparing for it: She cm- linl V lC f '° r , se she ' n ’ all ted, and, acinad , f ?, raily Precedent, got it. She hcavv t T lo °> Se dlvided skirt, a andsi] ilr f’ flTp ht a broad felt ha t She ff llk s a knight of old. adventm-e U if™ far - to look for her three hears. Came m tLe sha P° of

SHE FIGHTS A BEAR. ing raS fi? kur,lin £ fr °m a neighboursho had been v^ + ‘ UIOS where suddenly upon an o]d h t n sho OXIIIIO cubs in a dl“7 ske bea r and two

trees. Dena had no weapon but the ever-present six-shooter, yet she did > not flinch or run away from the infuriated animal, as she might easily have done at first.

Waiting until the bear was within a few yards, she quickly fired four shots, all of them entering the animal’s body, but none reaching a vital spot. Her horse reared and plunged so that tne fifth shot missed entirely, and before she could make any effort to turn or escape the fierce onslaught, the wounded and doubly vicious bear was too close for her to make any attempt at escaping. One shot had entered the bear’s lungs, and as sho rose to seize the girl, frothy blood from the bear’s nostrils was blown into Delia’s eyes and face, making it almost impossible for her to see. Roaring furiously, the bear seized the horse by the neck. This angered Dena so much, it being her favourite pony, that she leaned forward, and shoving her 45 Colt’s into the bear’s ear, fired, tearing the bear’s head almost off, and ; ending what had been one of the most exciting moments of her life. ! Having finished the old bear, she next ' turned her attention to the cubs, which j were winning and moaning in the top of a small pine. Uncoiling her riata, she | was able after several throws to place a noose over the head of one of them, and she quickly jerked him to tho ground, where it was the work of hut a moment to throw her blouse around him and tie his four hind legs together, not, however, without receiving several ' ugly scratches and bites. Being unable ' to rope the other one, on account of the dense foliage intervening, she ended his j existence with her six-shooter. Scalping the two dead bears, and tying the live cub behind her saddle, she proceeded on her way, better off by two scalps, I wort i 20 dollars each, and a cub for a pet.

Another time’, when out with her father, they had started a large cinnamon bear, and were following the dogs as closely as the roughness of the country would permit. The dogs, numbering nearly twenty, finally bayed the bear m the bend of a deep, narrow canyon. Here Colonel Ellison and Dena followed.

Coming up within a few rods of the pack, the Colonel watched for an opportunity to end the combat, but one of the dogs, emboldened by their presence, rushed in to seize the bear from behind. The bear was tqo quick, however, and turning, grabbed the dog by one leg, crushing the bones and almost tearing the leg from the body. Without a thought as to the consequences, Dena rushed forward and shot the hear through the neck.

Dropping the dog, the bear turned upon her, and with one sweep of pis powerful paws knocked the Winchester several rods, just as she was upon the point of shooting again. Fortunately for her, her father rushed between them with his horse, at the same time shooting the bear through the body, and giving Dena a chance to gain her horse. Meantime the dogs again heeled t.’ e bear, and a lucky shot, from Delia’s sixshooter ended the fight. The barrel of her Winchester was so bent from the force of the bear’s blow as to be useless afterwards..

Last fall she roped a black hear weighing over 200 pounds, and dragged him so nearly to death that she was able to dismount and cut his throat without danger. These are but a few of the instances wherein THE GIRL HAS FACED DEATH without a tremor. There is a look cf grim determination in her eyes. They suggest a sense of fearlessness seldom seen in woman. How many bears mis brave girl lias slain no man knows, for the scalps to her credit are so numero is that herself and her family have Jong since ceased to keep any record cf the number. Dena is a good many things besides a Diana. She is a good musician and a clever amateur photographer, to say nothing of being the belle of her part of Arizona. The Ellisons are an extremely Hospitable family, strangers always being welcome and made- to feel at home. Situated as the ranch is, so far from the railroad, and in an almost inaccessible country, a piano is one of the most noticeable objects seen upon entering the house, but nioro striking are tho | late waltzes and two-steps which Dena I plays, especially if one has seen her half | an hour before taming some wild bronco j or throwing an outlaw steer. | They are royal entertainers, of the

Southern type, and the “Ellison dances” are famous over Central Arizona. Every unmarried cowboy within a radius of fifty miles of the Ellison ranch has at some time within the past three years been a suitor of Miss Dena, and several times serious trouble and shooting affrays have been narrowly averted because of her favouring some particular one.

Dena doesn’t care. Men may fight over her, “for all of me,” she says. She lives in anticipation of the fall of the year. Then the bears descend from the top of the mountains to the foothills, where juniper berries and oak mast furnish an abundance of food of tho kind relished by bruin. Here it is that the Ellison family do their hunting, and it is nothing unusual for them to start ten or more bears in one day. Last fall four full-grown and three yearling bears were killed in one day

by the Ellisons. Black and cinnamon bears are the most numerous, but occasionally a silver tip or a hump-back grizzly wanders down from the northern hills, furnishing an exciting fight for anyone who crosses his path. At any time during the fall months one may see from ten to twenty bear hides and occasionally a lion pelt pegged up against the sides of the ranch buddings, drying, while rods of fence will be covered with hear “jerky.” Bear grease is not used for hair oil there, but is tried out by the barrel for use in cooking, lard being very expensive on account of the distance from the railroad. Airs Ellison is interested in the bear grease. But Dena says that is a phase of the bear that does not concern her. What she likes is tho fight.—“ Sail Francisco Call.”