AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF E. N. WOODCOCK. 17 



was in November and on a stormy day. I had killed a doe and 

 was in the act of dressing the doe and was leaning over the deer 

 at work. I was within a few feet of a fallen tree. Hearing a 

 slight noise, I raised up to see what caused it, when with the speed 

 of a cannon ball a buck flew past me, barely missing and landed 

 six or eight feet beyond me. 



The deer had come up to this fallen tree on the track of the 

 doe and seeing me at work over the doe, became angered and 

 sprung at me and only my straightening up at the very instant that 

 I did saved me from being seriously hurt or perhaps killed. I 

 sprang over the log. The deer stood and gazed at me for a 

 moment. His eyes were of a green hue and the hair on his back 

 all stuck up towards his head. After gazing at me for a moment 

 the deer walked slowly away. The suddenness of the occurrence 

 so unnerved me that I was unable to shoot for some minutes 

 though my gun was standing against the tree within reach. 



At another -time I was somewhat frightened by what I sup- 

 posed was a dead bear suddenly coming to life. I had caught 

 the bear in a trap and it had got fastened in some saplings grow- 

 ing on the steep bank of a small brook. I shot the bear in the 

 head, as I thought, and it fell over the bank in such a manner 

 that his whole weight was held by the leg that was fast in the 

 trap. I was unable to release it from the trap where it was hang- 

 ing as I had no clamp to put the trap springs down with, to re- 

 lease the bear's foot. I had set my gun, a single barrel rifle, 

 against a tree without reloading it. 



I cut the bear's paw off close to the trap which allowed the 

 animal to roll down the bank to level ground. I had begun to 

 rip down the leg that had been caught in the trap. A lad of 

 about ten years was with me having accompanied me to attend 

 the traps that day. The lad stood looking on when all of a 

 sudden he said, "See him wink." I stopped my work and glanced 

 at the bear's eyes and sure enough he was winking and winking 

 fast, too, and almost before I knew it the bear was trying to get 

 onto his feet. My gun was unloaded and the lad was screaming 

 at the top of his voice, "Kill him ! Kill him !" But what was I 



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