People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1897 — MAN AND BEAR FIGHT [ARTICLE]

MAN AND BEAR FIGHT

WHITE WAS LOOKING FOR DOCILITY, BUT BRUIN WAS WICKED. The Bear Went Tooth and Nail Against Knife and Gun and Was About Ready to End White’s Days When the Other Hunter Came —Two Seated Men. Hunters and lumbermen have bad several thrilling experiences with black ? bears up in the San Bernardino moun- • tains, 30 miles northwest of Colton, ■ Cal., in the last ten years, bat none that ; has reused the ranchmen and sheep herders along the foothills of this region more than that of David White and George W. Buck. a | Both are young ranchmen and excellent all around shots. They came from Vineland. N. J., years ago. Mr. White is about 33 years old and Mr. Buck was 81 last month. Both are now in bad form owing to their experience with a bear. White’s left arm was severely < lacerated and the wrist was laid bare to the bones. His cheek and neck were cut deeply by bear claws and his left side has a dozen gashes. Buck is in bed. His upper legs were torn by the same bear’s claws, his thigh was cut an inch deep in several places and the thin flesh of one of. his ankles was ripped open. > The Whites and Bucks live on neigh- ■ boring ranches near the mouth of Manzanita canyon over in Riverside county. Every fall they have passed in California the two men have laid in a sufficient supply of provisions and grease roots for cooking and have gone away in the facthills and canyons for a fortnight’s hunt. They have brought back many fox, deer and wildcat pelts, a quantity of venison, wild geese and occasionally the skin of a mountain lion. They started on their annual hunt ten days ago. This season they were more ambitious and decided to go up in the mountains—some 5.500 or 6,000 feet high—for big game. They went up into the San Bernardino spur of the Sierra Madre range. The trip was unsuccessful, for the early snows in the upper mountains have been unusually heavy this season. Beyond a few foxes and two wildcats they found nothing. On last Monday Buck and White prepared to go down the mountains to the warm valley below. Buck went out for a final round of the fox. traps and one more search for big game. White remained in tho log cabin to clean the guns and get things ready for the descent. This work he soon finished, and he went out to smoke his pipe and walk about among the trees. The morning was clqjr and agreeable, and he sat down on a log about a quarter of a mile away to smoke and read an old newspaper that he had found in his pockets. Ho says he could not have read half a column before the stillness was broken by the snapping of twigs and the rustling of dry leaves a hundred yards behind him. Ho turned leisurely, to see the hunting dogs that ~ Buck had gone away with, but his blood ray cold as he saw & black bear, as large as an ox, it seemed to him, coming toward him, with nose sniffing the ground as it advanced, but eyes straight on him. “In just a fraction of a second I was off that.log and was making the liveliest tracks any oiib ever saw made for the cabin,” said White in telling of the ex- ■ parlance. “I was unarmed but for my bowie knife and a small pistol. I must have made the distance from log to ca'tjin in race horse time" I had new-r ' before seen a bear except in a menagerie or at the end of an Italian’s pole. When ■ I reached the cabin door, I looked back and eawthq black bear smelling the log'where I had been. By that time I was cooler, and the beast looked smaller and' very docile. I was even vexed with myself for my fright and was glad that Buck had not witnessed my hard run. As I stood there watching the bear nosing about the log I thought of all I had ever read about the good nature of hears. I had heard so often that bears never really attacked any one. ‘Now, ’ thought I to ;mysclf, ‘is my golden opportunity ' to get a bear and show what I can do in the taming line. ’ “I thought how surprised Buck would be to come back to camp and find that I had done what he and I had talked about , doing ever since jve came oat . from New Jersey. So I snatched up my wiac’-. etcr, and, going cut into the . clearing, I stood within 100 yards of ' 'the bear, that was then holding its nose up in the air as if to catch a scent. The bear stock still and looked at me. I raised my rifle, took aim and Cred. Tbo aim was poor. The bear rolled a . few feet, grunted as the echo of my shot died away, and then, scrambling to its | feet, started toward me, covering apparently six feet to the’jump. f “Talk about docile, good natured i- bears! You ought to have seen that one! I took it all in at a glance and shall / never forget the sight. The beast was | bellowing, and, with nose up, mouth - open, teeth glistening and red blood trickling down its black face, it came straight as a bullet toward me. In less time than it takes to tell this I reached for a cartridge at my belt, and my blood ■' ran cold as it flashed upon me that in my excitement I had left the cartridge belt in the cabin, and that it was impossible to get there before the boar. You can bet it was an awful moment. I wouldn’t experience it again for a fortune. . - jf * “I had no time to consider, but a pro- ' cession of things went throiigh my mind. I had nothing about me but a long and very sharp bowie knife with which to defend myself, and there was that infuriated and hungry, powerful brute almost upon ma. I reached for my knife and drew it from its sheath, at the same moment running forward a few feet to strike as powerful a blow as possible with my weapon.* The beast struck against my legs, and I nearly fell to the ground. I turned and, in my haste, gave the animal a savage cut across the back. At that the bear turned upon ine more fiercely than ever. I had got upon my feet, and the bqar struck me a powerful blow upon my breast. I

could hardly breathe for a second. If I lad not been' prepared, I would have fallen under the beast. “The next move was to attempt tn put my long knife into the bear’s hears. My body, however, was so close to that of the beer that the knife blade struck too close to the shoulder to do any injury. The bear was more enraged than ever and dealt me a blow with one of its great paws that seemed like a sledge hammer ou my breast. I stumbled backward nearly upon the ground. I thought then I was surely a goner. In an instant ; the bear was upon me again with its | fore paws. I reached up and gave it a I great slash across the breast, from which great quantities of hot blood poured .down on me. I was most in dread of those long white teeth above me, but it seemed that it was the claws that I really had most to fear. We had a close embrace, during which my face and hands, as you see, were terribly scratched and torn. “I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to hold on to my knife, witfi which i had given the bear three deep digs, and at the same time to grasp it about tho waist. We rolled over twice, during which my heavy clothing was nearly torn off and my legs were terribly lacerated by the bear’s hind paws, but I still kept clear of the worst bites and hugs. My strength was beginning to fail, and I realized I could not fight on at this rate much longer. By a supreme effort I rolled upon my side, and, getting my right arm and hand free for an instant, I made a lunge which I meant should finish the bear. I aimed as near under the left fore paw as I could, and the knife went in—l don’t know how far.

“I am not a responsible witness to what occurred in the next few minutes, for I have a ha~zy recollection df the bear falling plumb upon me like an avalanche, and that is all. Buck was almost back at the cabin when he heard mjr winchester go off. He had dropped his fox traps and came pellmell through the chaparral, with the dogs on ahead ' of him. Ho says the bear was almost on me when he first saw the fight, and he; never ran faster in ali bis life. He vttes probably 400 yards away when thohear and I grappled, and he did not dare to' shJSot unless at close quarters for fear he would kill me. When I fell, with the brute on me, he was 20 feet away, and the dogs were yelping and barking all about. At that moment Buck seat a .56 ball into the hear, and then, running in close, he aimed to shoot again.

“In a flash the bear turned from me and leaped on him. Me staggered back, and the bear raised its forepaw and dealt him hnnthefblow on the chest.. It was all done quicker than thought, Buck says. His hunting coat was torn, and ho felt as if all the flesh was being torn from his bones. He retreated a few feet, and while the dogs were snapping at the bear he shot it, standing on its hind legs, full and fair in the chest. The bear tumbled forv/ald, and Buck fired three more bullets into it tef make sure of his game. It was over a day before we could get about enough, tn think of going down .the mountain trail home. . “We let the. bear’s carcass lie there among the pine trees until the ner z day, but we were, both too sore to abend to getting any trophies. Several Coahiiia Indians came chat way, and they skinm-d' the beast for the meat and helped us down, to Hemet. They said the bear was a female and weighed .between 35f and 400 pounds,' which was large;for a black burr. . . .. _.. . “Now Buck and I nrodfsputing about .who shall have that bearskin to show to" future general ions of Bucks anA Whites. We’ll have to draw cut's for it. The doctor says that Ruck will have to bo in bed for a week. You may rest assured that the women in our homos won’t ever lot.us go out for big game again. I’ve hied my fill anyhow. Foxes and wildcats up in the oiteybn are big enough for me.” —New York Sun.