Memories of a Bear Hunter 



from the savage way in which the bear had acted, 

 I felt that it would be dangerous business to jump 

 him in the undergrowth. He soon entered some 

 pretty thick pine brush, where I thought he would 

 lie down. I followed him for a few hundred feet 

 very cautiously. He knew he was being followed 

 or else had more vitality than the nature of the 

 wound indicated. It was now getting dark in the 

 underbrush and I was alone. I decided to give 

 him up and to return early the next morning and 

 follow up his trail. 



Corey and I were on hand early. Corey was an 

 experienced and painstaking trailer, and I had 

 every confidence in him. He was in the lead, to 

 enable him to follow the trail, and I was so close 

 behind him that the muzzle of my rifle was often 

 ahead of him. In the blood, and in the actions of 

 the bear there was every evidence that he was 

 badly wounded. He seemed to be bleeding inter- 

 nally. At every pine thicket we expected to stum- 

 ble on him. We followed for a mile down a slop- 

 ing ledge, and just in front of us a bear started up 

 and made off. We did not get a glimpse of him. 

 Corey followed him for a short distance, when, 

 his trail going down an abrupt mountain, it was 

 abandoned. Corey at once contended that this 

 was another bear, and said that we must have 



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