MAN AND BEAR FIGHT

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1780, 8 July 1926, Page 6

MAN AND BEAR FIGHT

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 tale to account for the slashings and bullet holes it contains. Neil. Allen, forest ranger, who is outfitting preparatory to returning to his territory at Cadomin, tells the story of how it was procured. Near Mary Gregg Lake, in the mountains to the south of the railway and to the east of the boimd,ary of Jasper ■Park, he had partly constructed a cabin. One night, in company with Walter Wrigley, a lad of 16 years, also from Cadomin, he took shelter under the tar paper which he had hung upon its frame to exclude the snow that was commencing to fall.

At about 2 a.m. he was awakened by a movement at the foot of his blankets, which he took to be that of a porcupine. His rifle, a .32 special, lying handy at his head, he prepared to rid; himself of a current nuisance on the trail.

He felt a large bulk move in the dark, for the cabin was no larger than a small room, and soon decided that he had something larger than a porcupine with which to deal. The bear made a heavy lurch towards the door to escape, but the canvas and, the high sill which had permitted a cautious entry forbade the impetuous exift. He became badly'entangled in his inability to get outside. Allen fired the first shot as the animal stood up on his haunches before the door. It passed through the neck, sending the blood into Bruin's windpipe in quantities that almost throttled him. He commenced a wild pilgrimage around the limited interior after being wounded, until, of the seven shots fired at him, one took effect, placing him hors de combat behind the stove, which, with a final shove of his back foot, he threw on to the blankets. So close had he been that his fur was singed, in spots, with the flame of the discharge.

Meanwhile, Wrigley had not been idle. iHis rifle, a .303, lay under the blankets. After the flring of the five rounds in the magazine the bed-clothes were fully alight, the smoke; adding to the general confusion arising from the rifle reports and the laboured cries of the bear.

The intruder into the cabin was iquieted for ever when, while he was still vainly struggling to regain his feet behind the upturned, stove, .Allen, realising that his magazine was empty ■and Ithat the bear if he rose again would have him at his mercy, slashed

him deeply with his hunting knife. Pieces of bannock on the floor, visible after the fray, explained the visit of the bear. Had the first shot not been so effective as it proved in making the animal wild and blind with pain, the struggle might have had' an entirely different ending. As it was, a marauder of the trappers' cabins in the Mountain Park vicinity for years received its inevitable reward,.