Monstrous Bear Killed in Catahoula Parish, 1894

The following article appeared in the July 21, 1894 edition of the Logansport Chronicle in Logansport, Indiana:

Transcription:

Even in Death the Monstrous Bear Hung to His Victim.

The largest bear killed in this country for many years became the trophy of a party of hunters on Ouachita river, a few miles above Trinity, La.  On Sicily Island there have been signs of a bear for several months past, and all efforts to capture him have failed.  Finally a party was organized to hunt for bruin.

Twenty men and a pack of trained dogs started, and the island was carefully explored, but without success.  They then went down on the Bone river and the Little river and could find no trace of him.  A search along the Black river resulted in disappointment, and the party started up the Ouachita, all of these streams uniting here.  The trail of the bear was soon found, and the leading dog could be heard barking in a way indicating that the tracks were fresh ones.

Logansport Chronicle - 7/21/1894

In a few minutes they had the animal treed in a large cypress.  He crouched in the forks of the tree and snarled at the dogs and the hunters. One of the men who had never been on a bear hunt before went closer to the tree and fired, with a result that he had not anticipated.  In a moment the animal fell from the tree and in another moment he had the hunter in his close embrace.

Then followed an exciting dance.  The other hunters were afraid to shoot for fear they would kill their companion, and it looked for a time as if the man would inevitably be crushed to death, but one of the men with a large hunter's knife succeeded in cutting the bruin's throat and killing him almost instantly.  

Even in death he hung to his victim and it took the united efforts of two of the hunters to release their comrade, who was so exhausted that it was feared he could not recover.  However, he is now getting along well, although one arm and one rib are broken.  The bear weighed 600 pounds, and the hunters are very proud of their success in killing him.

*Note:  I have never heard of the Bone River that is mentioned in this article.  Was this a misprint by the newspaper or was there once a Bone River in Catahoula Parish back in the 1890s?