grueling Battle

For more than thirty years, Dr. John Craighead has been one of the world's leading experts on bears. So when an Alaskan brown bear emerged from the forest near where Craighead was fishing, he thought nothing of it. But then the hooked salmon he was fighting started to jump, causing the bear to plunge into the water and take the fish in its mouth. "I had the bear on my line for about thirty seconds or more," Craighead said. "But of course there was nothing I could do." The bear clambered up the bank of the river and entered the heavy brush, breaking off Craighead's fishing line!