DEER HUNT TURNED INTO A BEAR HUNT. 209 



about half way tip the hill, I found her bed, but the doe was 

 gone. I took the trail and followed it up the hill until she struck 

 the trail of the deer that she was with when I first started them, 

 and instead of going down the ridge, she took the back trail of 

 the other deer. I followed it back until near where I had wounded 

 her, when she again broke down the hill and crossed the creek near 

 yvhere I first found their trail, and had gone back onto the same 

 ridge that she had come from. 



Now the only thing for me to do was to leave the trail and 

 go after Mr. Dingman again. When I found him and we got back 

 to camp, it was about noon, so we got a warm dinner before con- 

 tinuing the chase. When we got up to where I had left the trail, 

 we held council and made our plans for the next move, and 

 decided that as the old lady was continually doing the unexpected, 

 we would follow her track, one going on each side of the trail 

 a few yards from it. 



We had only gone a short distance up the hill when we found 

 the old .lady's bed, where she had laid down, so that she could 

 watch back on her trail, where she had come down on the oppo- 

 site hillside. We did not go far when the trail turned to the left 

 and went up the side of the ridge toward the head of the creek. 

 We continued .along the trail one on either side and soon we 

 came to where a large hemlock tree had fallen parallel with the 

 side of the hill. Mr. Dingman was on the upper side and above 

 the fallen tree, while the deer tracks led away below the tree. 

 All of a sudden I heard the report of Mr. Dingman's rifle, so I 

 stood still for a minute, and hearing nothing more I went to see 

 the cause of the shooting. The doe had gone beyond the fallen 

 tree, then turned back and went about midway of the tree, on 

 the upper side and lay down. Mr. Dingman caught a glimpse of 

 the old lady as she went out, but did not catch her. 



We did not follow the doe far from where she lay behind the 

 fallen tree, for we crossed the trail of a bear going west, and 

 partly in the direction of that of the wounded deer, which con- 

 tinued to work her cards on us all afternoon without our getting 

 sight of her. At dusk we trailed her into a small thicket at the 

 14 



