A TRUE BEAR YARN.

Colonist, Volume XLIII, Issue 9821, 23 June 1900, Page 3

A TRUE BEAR YARN.

THRILLING ADVENTURE OF A NELSONIAN. A young Nelsonian attracted to the inhospitable region of Klondike by the account of its golden wealth, has since reaching thai district .met with not a few adventures which, writing to a friend from Dawson, he says he does not care to recount,, fearing & charge of egotism. Ods adventure, however, he does set forth, and we have been favored with the narrative, which reads as follows : — . " Early last summer having ..nothing particular to do, and hearing "that moose and: cariboo had been seen about 30 miles from Dawson, I made up my mind for a hunting expedition and mentioning my intention to H , an Englishman, and E , an American, they readily agreed to accompany me. H— ' — , who I knew well, is a very nice fellow and an old Cambridge man. He said he did not know much about hunting and expressed the hope that we .would not meet with any bears. I quite agreed with him in this, for during the winter I had had a good deal to do with an old hunter, and he told me that he had seen a bear shot through the heart kill a man. My hunter friend further told me that when at close quarters with a bear the only .place to sh ot at to make sure was the centre c ! the neck, and if you shoot straight the bullet would sever the spinal cord, with the result that the bear would fall without muscular movement of any kind. E— — , the Yank, said that he hoped we would come across a bear, and (with true American modesty) went on to ezpatiate on the deeds he had performed with the rifle and his coolness in time of danger, finishing up by saying that he was like most Americans in this latter respect. H , who is rather given to satire, said,

' Oh, yes, we all know that as far as coolness in time of danger goes you, being an American, would naturally show up ahead of us, who are only Englishmen.' We little thought that shortly we should have a good ohanoe of putting R 's boasted courage to the test. " We started out and reached the river, on the opposite bank of which we intended to hunt, about 10 p.m. The sun was still shining, but we decided not to- cross until wtf had rested, for we had walked about 30 miles, carrying on our backs about two weeks' grub, our blankets, rifles and ammii' nition. The day had been hot, over 100 in the shade, and the bush on the river bank looked beautifully cool and inviting for a camping ground, but instead of camping there we chose a spot as far out as we could get on a shingle bank in the river bed, knowing that we should be eaten alive by mosquitos if we ventured to camp near the bush. As it was we had to make a fire and pile on green branches to make a big smoke before we could be at all comfortable, after which it was not long before we were sleeping the sleep of the very tired. " Being early astir next morning, we soon had a raft built on which to cross the river. It was a flimsy structure, however, and we got swamped, losing most of our ammunition and some of our grub, while H lost his rifle. For three days we tramped over miles of country without seeing any big game, and on the third day, coming across a small lake abounding with ducks, we blazed away most of our remaining ammunition, it being our intention to return to Dawson next day. We got 15 ducks, but I had one cartridge only left, and E but three. We set off for camp and were Grossing a strip of country covered with stones, betwean which grew small shrubs, when suddenly I felt H catch me by the arm, and looking round I saw R aiming at something I soon made out. to be a large bear. It was not one of the common kind, which are comparitively harmless, but a cinnamon bear, which the hunters acknowledge to be almost as ugly a customer to taokle as the world-famed ' grizzly. 1 He is rather larger than the grizzly, weighing in condition 6001bs. The bear was about 50 yards off standing looking at us, and just as I caught sight of him R fired, with the result that the bear turned round and was quietly ambling away. I was not sorry to see him go, as I had heard enough about wounded bears to know that unless you could make quite sure of your first shot it was better to leave them alone. I told "R this as I saw him going to shoot again, but he said that he was not going to sbow the white feather, and he let fly again. This time he shot the bear through the lungs, and uttering a sound between that of a bull bellowing and a dog growling, the brute turned and made straight for us. Things were beginning to look a bit interesting, E and I had a cartridge each only, there were no trees or shelter, and the bear coming almost as fast as a horse gallops, must catoh one of us at least if we ran. Our only chance was to fis him, and any fool could see that -our best ohanoe to do that, was to wait till he got quite close and make sure. I instantly made up my mind to follow my old hunter friend's advice to wait for olose quarters and aim at the centre of the neck. I told B to wait till the bear was within 20 yards, but his American blood began to assert itself, and hardly were the words out of my mouth when he fired, missed, and throwing down his rifle fled, leaving H and I to fight it out. The sensation I assure you was not a pleasant one, the bear was making hideous noises and his face and chest were covered with froth and blood. Little H (V i? ■- ;-]v sft 2in) was standing by my side pale, in fact, as white as a ghost, but here I should like to digress a little. The fact of a man getting pale in time of danger or excitement is looked upon by many as a sign of a coward, but if ever I want a mate in a tight place, give me the man who gets pale, he will keep cool and do the proper thing at the proper time, this I have proved over and over again. To continue, there little H stood, and when I hastily told him to run, as he had no gun, he replied "No d fear, if you miss him I will help you through with my knife." lam glad he did not go for he gave me confidence. I was down on one knee, and was glad to find that I could hold the rifle steady. How the thoughts flashed through my mind at this moment, among other thing the old yarn, which I . expect you have heard, of the Irishman who chased by a bear fell down and broke his leg, he then put up the prayer "O, Lord, if you don't help me don't help the bear, and you'll see the greatest fight you ever saw in the Rocky Mountains.' When the bear was within ten yards he got up on his hind legs, just as the old hunter had described to me, and then a most extraordinary thing happened to me. My thoughts went back to a time when I was only twenty (I am over thirty now), it was a beautiful summer evening, and I was sitting on the verandah of the old home toying with a rifle and looking over the tennis lawn at the pines which bounded it on one side. I happened to say that I thought I could cut off with a bullet the straight stem which formed the top of the tallest pine when a friend, who had dropped in, immediately bet me " five to one you don't do it in five shots." I just did it first shot. Well as I was saying when the bear rose on his hind legs this incident flashed before my eyes, and so vivid was the impression that I almost forgot the bear, and thought I was firing at the pine tree. In any case the result was satisfactory, the bear went down without a groan, and though the muscles twitched a' little, there was hardly a kick out of him. H was bo pleased that he threw his arms round me and fairly hugged me. " While we were measuring the great brute (he was seven feet from tail to snout) R came sneaking back. You should have heard H rub it in to him. " We skinned the bear, andH and I tossed to see who should have the skin. H won and immediately wanted me to take it as I had shot the brute, but to this course I would not agree, considering that he was in the more trying position."