"TREED" BY GRIZZLIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2456, 7 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

"TREED" BY GRIZZLIES.

An* American paper just received containß a despatch from the 15ig Horn Mountains, in which is given it novel experience with grizzly bears. Returning to camp one evening, two hunters discovered that a companion had gone off nftev si As ho had not returned when the moon rose they went to search for him. After tramping about three miies they hoard a distant yell in response to their shouting. "As soon as we got near enoimh to understand what he was saying," ono of the party writes, " wo moved forward with extreme caution. Shouting at the top of his voice, he told us that he was treed by a whulo herd of grizzlies, and had parted company with his WiuChester. 'Be mighty careful !' he shouted. ' They're getting all worked up over hearing you. Crawl up as near as you safely can, and take to the trees with your guns.' We had moved up to within about, 100 yards of Sagebrush's tree, when he yelled out that several of the grizzlies were moving off in our direction. I was just boosting tho Englishman up into the nearest tree, when the foremost bear on me scurrying through, not more than thirty paces nwy. There was a likely-looking tree about twenty yards further back, and to the best of my recollection I reached that tree in about three jumps. Quick as I was, however, I wasn't, u moment too lively ; for the bear wus underneath the tree, looking up with that longing ex-pres-ion peculiar to a grizzly when he has treed anything, and particularly a man. Tucking myself up a yard or two higher, I got astride of a big strong branch, mid turned around to take in tho situation. By this time four boars had arrived on the scene, and Sagebrush was calling out te inquire if we were both safe. After replying , that we were all riaht, I turned my "attention to the Englishman. Fortunately for him the space between hi* tree and mine was quite clear. In the hurry to got him up off the ground he had sprung to tho nearest frree after Sagebrush called out, and it turned ont to bo the poorest kind of a retreat. After the first six feet from tho gronnd numerous snags made it easy enough to scale ; but a very few feet higher up nnd it ended in such a bushy mass of littlo branches that it was impossible for him to climb well out, of danger. No more uncomfortable position could bo very well imagined than the one he found himself in when arrested by tho scrubby branches. All of a sudden he sang out, ' For God's sake, Hank, use your Winchester if you can. I'm in a devil of a trap ; they're climbing the tree.' Suro enough ono determined old cuss was making a clumsy attempt to hoist himself up by clinering to the snags above. Drawing a bead on the varmint that was trying to climb the treo, my Winchester barked, and I was mightily relieved to sec him topple over and take to flopping and smashing around on the ground. In his fury at the sharp twinge of the bullet he tackled one of the other bears, and for a minute or two we witnessed a scrimmage that was away ahead of any circus for a real live show. For the time being the other three bears seemed to forget us ; they shuffled around the combatants, walked backward, etood on their hind feet, whined and snarled, and otherwise betrayed great excitement. It isn't very often that bears get to fighting among themselves; they are generally as peaceful and playful as so many kittens. When they do get at it, however, they are pretty savage, and the wounded grizzly and his antagonist fought and rolled and roared and kicked up such a racket that Sagebrush wanted to know what was up; and two other bears deserted their vigil under his tree and came lumbering over to the scene of the conflict. ' I guess I'm all right now,' sang ont the Englishman at tlrs stage. 'I've found a snag that I can sit down on, after a fashion, and draw my feet up nigher. I couldn't use my gun before"— hang .' He seemed eager to show that he was in a position to use it now, and to some purpose, for at the crack of his Winchester, round the room spun another grizzly, roaring and biting where ho had been struck. 'Let 'em have it, Hank ; we'll have the whole herd a fighting and tearing one another to pieces in a minute.' The din of battling bears, the fighting, cutting, snarling, was making the woods ring, and yet another one came hurrying across from Sagebrush's direction. We were now looking down upon seven grizzlies, the biggest bunch I ever saw together up in the mountains. In ten minutes there wasn't a bear left with an unpiinctured hide in the whole herd, and they were fighting together like a school of Kilkenny cats—seven grizzly beats, maddened by bulled wounds, roaring and wrestling and clawing and biting. But the bullets and their own lighting began to tell. First one rolled over and stretched out, then another sat down on his hunches and

dropped his head, and finally sprawled out; a third moseyed off some distance to sit down and lick his wounds, and a fourth began spinning round and round like a rrassy thing, whining and moaning. They were getting pretty weak with loss of blood and tired of fighting. We still dosed them with lead, and at length four of the seven lay stretched out on the field, and the other three had moseyed off most likely to die of their wounds, for every one of them must have been badly hit. We stayed up in the trees till broad daylight, not thinking it prudent to trust ourselves on the ground before, with three dangerously-wounded grizzlies roaming around the immediate neighbourhood. On the way home Sagebrush told us that when we found him lie had been treed about eight hours.' .