JANUARY, 1923 
Vol. XCIII 
No. 1 
THE MONSTER BEAR OF ALASKA 
THE STORY OF A SUCCESSFUL HUNT AMID THE WIDE VAL¬ 
LEYS AND SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS OF THE NORTH 
By JOHN D. THEES 
AST spring Mr. Charles King, my 
companion on many a big game 
hunt, # and I went to the Alaska 
Peninsula to hunt the big brown 
bears. The year previous we had en¬ 
gaged our guides and we had every rea¬ 
son to believe that we would have a 
successful trip, provided we were willing 
to give the hard work which goes to 
make a success of any undertaking. 
After a pleasant trip along the Alaska 
coast we finally landed on the beach 
where we were met by our packers and 
all hands put on packs and started for 
our main camp which we reached after 
some four hours of mushing over the 
flats. 
The first thing we did after we arrived 
on the ground was to fix up our sleeping- 
quarters by securing a good 
quantity of dry grass, which 
we spread over the tops of 
broken off branches of alders. 
. T Over that we placed our short 
' air mattresses, which we were 
very much pleased with, and 
on top of all our sleeping- 
bags. We had no complaint 
to offer so far as comfortable 
sleeping-quarters were con¬ 
cerned. 
The following day we went 
out on the flats, King having 
Victor Wilsgard and I Oscar 
Langsmith as guide. Both 
men proved to be very willing 
and competent fellows, and al¬ 
ways seemed to anticipate the 
little attentions which help to 
* make camp life more enjoy¬ 
able. 
After a two hour mush, one 
of the guides saw a bear and 
King very generously said to 
me: “He is yours, Jack. I 
killed the last grizzly in British Colum¬ 
bia, so the first bear here is yours. 
The binoculars showed that the beai 
was working up-stream along a creek 
toward us. The wind was blowing from 
JT VER the lure oj the hunt leads men 
*—* to desolate regions where the brown 
bears roam. Those who have followed 
their trails over the wind-swept tundra 
of the Alaska Peninsula feel forever 
after the satisfaction that comes from, 
having been in close contact with the 
primal forces of nature. 
the bear to us. Oscar and I worked 
part way down-stream toward him, 
leaving King and Victor to view the 
proceedings from an elevation a short 
distance back on the flats. It was slow 
work waiting for Brownie to come to 
A bear camp among the alders on the Alaska Peninsula 
us, as he was in no hurry, and seemed 
to want to investigate every turn of the 
stream, and nip a little vegetation here 
and there, but finally he came within 300 
yards of us, and we saw he would not world like a setter trying to locate a 
do, as he was not over a four-year-old, 
so we passed him up. 
In the afternoon we went over some 
other territory and saw the same bear 
lying on the snow intently watching a 
porcupine, but evidently not interested 
enough to disturb him. On my return 
to camp at 6.30 I found I had developed 
blisters on each of my heels, due to 
putting on new shoes, and wearing them 
too long a time before breaking them in. 
T HE following four days we did very 
little outside of short trips as the 
wind was blowing in the wrong direc¬ 
tion, but it had its compensations, as it 
gave my heels a chance to heal, and 
with judicious use of adhesive tape I 
had no further trouble with them. 
On our fifth day in camp 
we had our first taste of what 
in that country is called a 
“Wooley.” The storm started 
about 4 o’clock in the after¬ 
noon and the wind and rain 
gradually increased in violence 
until I couldn’t see how the 
tent could possibly stay up, so 
at 2 A. M. I got up and 
dressed myself, as I had no 
desire to try to dress after the 
tent had gone down, with 
everything scattered to the 
four winds. Fortunately, the 
guides had anchored it se¬ 
curely and it stayed “put.” 
That day about noon it had 
blown itself out, but while it 
lasted it surely was not con¬ 
ducive to sleep. The next day 
we left our main camp for a 
camp our guides had in Head 
Valley, and after a five-hour 
mush we reached it. On the 
way over we had a very in¬ 
teresting exhibition of a blind fox trying 
to locate us. He heard us but could not 
tell just where we were and he swung 
around in a large half circle for all the 
* 
