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BEAR KILLED WITH BOW AND ARROW California Sportsmen TTse Odd Weapon ia ihc Humboldt County Woods it is true It may seem unbelievable nevertheless that Arthur Young and Saxton Pope of San Fran ¬ cisco killed in 1antlien Canyon Humboldt County California a black bear with bow and arrow arrowStrange Strange as it may seem to eastern hunters Young and Pope with other sportsmen of San Francisco have beer hunting with bow and arrow purely for sport A powerful bow is an effective weapon ssys Mr Pope but it takes months of practice to be able to shoot it well Such a bow pulls seventyfive pounds poundsItoth Itoth these hunters have killed with bow and arrow rabbits ciuail squirrel skunk fox and even1 deer and l obcat When Young and Pope mentioned going on a hunt for bear armed only with bow and arrow friends were skeptical yet they knew that with these Indian implements both men had killed deer and bobcats These friends maintained that an arrow would hardly go through the hide of a bear bearBoth Both men knew that a bear is a hard animal to Uill even with a gun but history told them of In ¬ dians killing bear with a bow and arrow So the men decided to go out on a bear hunt just to find out how much there was to the game gameIn In discussing the bear hunt with bow and arrow Mr Pope says saysWe We got in communication with Thomas Murphy of Blocksburg Humboldt County who hunts bear as a business He has been at this sort of thing for thirty years and never fails to get about a dozen bear every winter So we packed up our strongest bows and several dozen broadhead arrows and Arthur Young and I went up to Blocksburg BlocksburgMurphy Murphy was willing to let us shoot at a bear but he insisted upon carrying a gun in case of acci ¬ dents He said he didnt want to lose a valuable dog over the affair affairHOW HOW THE BEAR WAS HUNTED AND KILLED KILLEDAfter After four unsuccessful hunts we at last treed a good sized bear up a tallfir After securing the logs Young and I took our stand about thirty yards from the base of the tree on the sidehill and let drive two arrows at one time Both shafts struck the bear in the chest going completely through feathers and all allQuick Quick as a flash the bear wheeled about and began descending the tree We ran up close and siot him again sis he neared the ground and bounded down the hill Murphy turned the dogs loose and they all went crashing through the brush together Pretty soon we heard them bay him again and ve rushed a quarter of a mile down the canyon to find him sitting on the limb of another fir holding on like a man We shot again and he dropiKMl to the ground where the dogs heeled him and went flying past hanging on to a hind leg the bear immediately mounted a nearby oak not over eight inches iu diameter and swung out on u limb limbAt At close range we shot arrow after arrow through his chest while lie slipiied farther out on the bending limb and at last fell to the ground rolling over and over down the canyon The dogs were on him ina second and by the time we reached thek creek bed the bear was dead Murphy performed the autopsy giving the hounds the liver and lights Kleveii arrow had gone through tliK teast Bfven of theitt though th g chest The lung wore co lapsed uud pulmonary hemorrhage finished him The first tw l shots would have Iwen fiiou h if Aye Jiad waited waitedIt It was a thrtteyuarold feinalu black bear weighing afoont jrQ pounds Tbiit It VU9 W larger was no fault of ours The arrows cut ribs in two rat several points and undoubtedly could have pene tratcd any beast with a bide less resistant than a hippo or an elephant
