INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH BEAR TRAPPING. 11*7 



Well what do you think you will do about it? I think we 

 had better turn in early so as to get an early start in the morn- 

 ing and see if we can find where the bear is sleeping. "Agreed," 

 said Mart, and we were soon in bed, but it was a long time be- 

 fore I closed my eyes in sleep for I was familiar with the woods 

 in the neighborhood where the bear was supposed to be and I 

 mapped out and laid every plan that was to be carried out the 

 next day before I went to sleep. 



At four o'clock in the morning we were astir and soon break- 

 fast was ready and eaten, lunch put up and at the break of day 

 we were, on our way to where bruin was supposed to be, a dis- 

 tance of about five miles, which is no small job for an old cripple 

 like myself. After about three hours we were on the ground 

 where we were in hopes of finding bruin. Mart was to circle 

 several points outside of where we thought the bear was snooz- 

 ing ; this was done to make sure that the bear was in there. I 

 took a position where the bear was most likely to come out if he 

 was there and should be started by Mart. My position was in 

 an open piece of timber on the point of a hill and near a very 

 thick jam of trees that had been broken down two years before 

 by a heavy ice storm and near the bear track where he had gone 

 in several days before. Mart was to make another circle some- 

 what smaller than the one he had previously made for we now 

 knew that the bear was in the jam of timber. 



After completing the second circle Mart was to drop below 

 the jam where we were quite sure bruin was napping and work 

 his way through the fallen timber. This worked all right, for 

 soon I heard Mart cry out : "Look out, he is coming." Soon I 

 heard the crashing of the brush and could tell that bruin was 

 coming directly toward me, and in another minute he broke into 

 the open timber. My rifle was already pointed in that direction 

 and bruin had scarcely made two jumps in the open timber when 

 I fired. The bear made a loud noise like that of a hog and I 

 knew that he was hit hard and could already see a crimson streak 

 in the snow. But bruin steadily held his course, in a few yards 

 further he made an attempt to jump a large fallen tree and I fired 

 again. This shot was more fatal than the first, and he fell to the 



