Hunting the Grisly 115 



pack animal being slow he started to climb a 

 tree; but before he could get far enough up 

 she caught him, almost biting a piece out of 

 the calf of his leg, pulled him down, bit and 

 cuffed him two or three times, and then went 

 on her way. 



The only time Woody ever saw a man killed 

 by a bear was once when he had given a touch 

 of variety to his life by shipping on a New 

 Bedford whaler which had touched at one of 

 the Puget Sound ports. The whaler went up 

 to a part of Alaska where bears were very 

 plentiful and bold. One day a couple of 

 boats 7 crews landed; and the men, who were 

 armed only with an occasional harpoon or 

 larice, scattered over the beach, one of them, 

 a Frenchman, wading into the water after 

 shell-fish. Suddenly a bear emerged from 

 some bushes and charged among the aston 

 ished sailors, who scattered in every direc 

 tion; but the bear, said Woody, &quot;just had it 

 in for that Frenchman,&quot; and went straight at 

 him. Shrieking with terror he retreated up 

 to his neck in the water; but the bear plunged 

 in after him, caught him, and disemboweled 

 him. One of the Yankee mates then fired a 

 bomb lance into the bear s hips, and the sav 

 age beast hobbled off into the dense cover of 



