A MAN ATTACKED BY A BEAR.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2567, 22 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A MAN ATTACKED BY A BEAR.

An extraordinary affair happened at Franklin'e Gardens, Northampton, on a recent Saturday afternoon. A fete was being held in the Gardens under the auspices of the local volunteer corps, and the gardens were crowded with pleannreseekers. In the centre of the ground is a huge bear pit, and into this a young man who was looking over the parapet dropped his hat. A man named John Gotch, formerly an attendant at tho gardens employed in the feeding of the animals, thought he could trust himself to enter the pit, in the belief that tho bears would know him again. As soon, however, as he reached the floor of the pit one of the bears sprang at him from the rear, and commenced to tsar savagely at his scalp. Gotch's yells attrated a great crowd of people, and the greatest excitement and confusion prevailed. Word was sent to the volunteers who rushed from their drill and soon surrounded the pit. Colonel Hollis, commander of the battallioo, hurled lite sword at the bear, which was slightly wounded. Smarting from the pain of the wound, the brute becime more infuriated and attacked his victim with increased ferocity. Riflea and bayonets were now hurled at the animal from all sides, and it is a wonder Gotch was not struck. But the bear continued to maul the unfortunate man until Lieutenant Hull, by a well-directed throw, dashed a bayonet fixed to a heavy rifle right into the animal's flank. With a roar of pain the bear released his captive, and sulked off. Meanwhile, the regular attendants having arrived, Gotch was extricated from his perilous position, and taken on an ambulance to the hospital. It was found that the skull had been battered in a horrible manner, and a portion of the scalp had been torn literally from the bone. On enquiry at the hospital at a late hour, a correspondent learned that although Gotch was seriously injured, no immediate danger was feared. The bear, which is named Victoria, was, it appears, covered with wounds, and is not expected to survive. The managers say the bears were excited by the volley-firing of the volunteers, but it is a singular fact that the other bears eat throughout at the top of their poles and gazed in the moat unconcerned manner at what was going on in the pit.