Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
to a thicket of salmon berries and salal, the rendezvous of the black
bear at that time of y~ar. Kno\ving the country well, we took our
stand on the leaward SIde of the thicket, so our scent would not warn
the bears of our presence. A bear depends more upon scent than evesight
to warn them of danger. We hadn't been there 10nO' when Fr~nk
asked, "what is that black spot I see through those fer~s·! I believe
it's a bear." Approaching the place cautiously, we soon learned that
it was a bear, standing on an old half-rotten log, digging out ants, of
which they are very fond. We could not see all of the bear's body,
owing to the brush, yet he was sufficiently visible to permit us to be
sure of his identity, so we shot. He disappeared in the thicket. It is
always dangerous to followed a crippled bear into brush, so we cautiously
went to the place we had last seen him, and found evidence of
our marksmanship. The bear was making his way to a little bunch
of dense brush, probably 100 feet in diameter, and about 100 yards
distant. vVe didn't follow him, but went round, watching his course
by the motion of the brush. We were traveling probably five or six
feet above the ground on windfall timber. Mr. Bear made it to the
clump and left us puzzled as to how to g'et him out, as we didn't know
just how badly he was injured. 'Ve cautiously advanced, Frank on
one side, and myself on the other. Finally I came to an old log about
five feet in diameter and 150 feet long, which had stood nearly in the
center of the clump of brush. Seeing the log led directly to the stump,
near which we had last seen indications of the bear, I called to Frank
and informed him I was going up the log and try to locate the bear, I
proceeded toward the stump. I couldn't see any sign of the bear, so
I jumped back on the log and pulled loose some pieces of bark, then,
climbing the stump again, I began throwing the bark at likely places
in which the bear mig'ht be hiding. Sure enough, out he came to the
stump, and as I had to hang onto the stump with one hand, it left me
in an awkward position, trying to handle the gun wtih the other, so
my marksmanship was faulty. By this time it looked as though the
bear would succeed in trying to climb up, so I hopped back on the log
and to my surprise found that in tearing loose the bark to throw at
the bear, I had uncovered a yellow jacket's nest, and it was up to me
to decide immediately which was worse, a wounded bear or these vicious
little insects. My call for help was answered b~- Frank, who had
worked up a hemlock tree to a position to get a shot at the hear. I
still don't know what I should ha,-e done bad I been alone.
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