TERRIBLE ENCOUNTER WITH AN ANGRY BEAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2043, 22 January 1889, Page 3

TERRIBLE ENCOUNTER WITH AN ANGRY BEAR.

♦ A desperate fight witU a bsar took place recently, at Franklin's Pioaaare Gardens Northampton, where tho local volunteer! had been having a Bham fight. The repeated fifing m the grounds evidently alarmed the various wild animals there, and when a man uaraed Gotah ontercd th« pit to attend to the bears one of them suddenly sprang open him from behind and knocked him partly unooqsoloua tr tho ground. Then se'zing the man's bet d ia its fore paws the bear began gnawing at his ncalp. Au alarm was qulokly raist d bat no one for a timo was daring enough to follow tho man into the pU aud drlvt oft the boar. Lieutenant Ooionel Holli*, however, who with other volunteers w»e attracted by tho cries of spectator, drew his eword and hurlod it at the bear. The point of the weapon struck the animal, with the effect of making It ■tJU more feroolous Lleat. Hall, of Northampton, then determined to enter the pit, and taking a rifle with bayonet affixed, he pluoklly descended into the place and at* tacked the bear, which was still lacerating the head and neck of the man lying it the bottom. With a powerful thrust he drove the bayonet into the bear's shooldei, and irlih a howl of pain the animal immediately released Its hold upon the prostrate man, •nd turned upon Lieutenant Hull. By dexterously usiog the bayonet, however, Hall managed to drlvo the bear to the wall, and Gotoh was rapidly, but with considerable difficulty, got oat of the pit. Lieutenant Bull made hts escape, leaving his bayonet and Lieutenant Ooionel Hollla' sword at the bottom of the pit with the bear. Gotob, who was taken to the infirmary, was found to be serionsly wounded m the head, the scalp being torn from the skull m several pl*oe». The bear was left m a dying condition. Tbe managers say that the bears were ezolted by the volley-firing and the volaoteers ; but it is a alngulsr fiot that the other bears eat throughout at the top ef their poles and gazad m the moat unconoarned manner at what was going on In tbe pit.