An Angling Grizzly Bear.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 156, 12 June 1886, Page 1

An Angling Grizzly Bear.

One of the curious sights that I saw in Alaska was a grizzly bear fishing for, salmon. Long before we came to the spot we saw his tracks in the margin of the lake. The marks of his feet measured 16 inches across and nearly twice as long. Suddenly my guide made a sign and then dropped down behind a rock. I did the same, and looking ahead not more than three rods, I saw the largest wild animal I had ever seen outside of a menagerie. I knew it was a grizzly. The brute was lying on the top of a bank, in which he had scooped out a chute down to the rivers edge, at a sharp angle. The bear's eyes were fixed intently on the water, and he had not heard our approach. Presently he slid down that chute with astonishing velocity and plunged head first into the water. When he arose and backed out he had in one of his great paws an enormous salmon, which be took to the top of the bank and proceeded to make a meal of it. He never finished it, for both my guide and myself sent two balls into his gigantic carcass. He arose to his feet with a roar like a lion, turned about two or three times as if to see whence the deadly fire had come, and then fell to the ground and was soon dead. This fishing for salmon is a common method of securing choice morsels of food by both the common bear and the grizzly. —American A nqler.