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Show A Three Legged Bear. Three years ago, sheep, pigs, and occasionally a calf belonging to people [unreadable] volunteer to assume the name of [unreadable] living about Guyon Settlement, Warren County, were missed from pastures and pens. It was at last discovered that an immense black bear made the havoc. The man of the place went after him with guns and dogs. He was hunted for weeks. He was seen several times and shot at. Once he came suddenly out into a road where George Root was standing, rifle in hand. Root fired and hit the bear. The bear turned on the hunted. Root dropped the gun and climbed a tree. The bear waited under the tree for him until dark. It was late in the fall and very cold. When the bear walked off into the woods, Root was nearly frozen and had difficulty in reaching home, three miles away. A week afterward the bear was attacked by two dogs that were with a party of hunters. Before any of the men arrived on the scene both dogs were killed, and the bear had disappeared in the swamp. A large steel trap was baited with honey and set in a place that showed signs of the bear's frequent presence. The men who went to look at the trap next morning found it sprung. It held the forepaw of a bear. The size of the paw indicated that the animal to which it belonged was of great size. It appeared to have been gnawed from the leg.. A trail of blood led from the trap to the swamp. That was the last ever seen or heard of the bear. Three weeks ago the sheep, pigs, and calves of Guyon Settlement began to be mysteriously thinned out again. One day a bear was seen to cross the road near the place by some school children. Geo. Watson and A.R. Root, Jr., took two dogs and went out with their rifles to kill the bear. The dogs struck a track on the mountain in less than an hour, and they came up to the bear in a short time. When Root and Watson arrived they found the dogs both engaged in a flight with a very large specimen of the game they were seeking. When the bear saw the men it knocked one of the dogs with its forepaw and threw it twenty feet away. It did not return to the contest. The bear then rushed for the hunters. Root stopped it with a rifle ball. It made a second attack, and Watson sent a ball into it. It arose the third time, and endeavored to reach the men, who had retreated to a safe distance, but fell after making a few steps, and died. The bear had but three feet. One of the forepaws was missing. For that reason the residents of Guyon Settlement believe that the dead bear was the one that was in the neighborhood three years ago. The bear was very thin, but the largest ever killed in that region. In good condition it would have weighed 500 pounds. |