THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



CHAPTEK XII 

 BA TISTE, THE BEAR HUNTER 



THE city man, who goes bear-hunting with a body 

 guard of armed guides in a field where the hunted have 

 been on the run from the hunter for a century, gets a 

 very tame idea of the natural bear in its natural state. 

 Bears that have had the fear of man inculcated with 

 longe-range repeaters lose confidence in the prowess of 

 an aggressive onset against invisible foes. The city 

 man conies back from the wilds with a legend of how 

 harmless bears have become. In fact, he doesn t be 

 lieve a wild animal ever attacks unless it is attacked. 

 He doubts whether the bear would go on its life-long 

 career of rapine and death, if hunger did not compel 

 it, or if repeated assault and battery from other ani 

 mals did not teach the poor bear the art of self-de 

 fence. 



Grisly old trappers coming down to the frontier 

 towns of the Western States once a year for provisions, 

 or hanging round the forts of the Hudson s Bay Com 

 pany in Canada for the summer, tell a different tale. 

 Their hunting is done in a field where human presence 

 is still so rare that it is unknown and the bear treats 

 mankind precisely as he treats all other living beings 

 from the moose and the musk-ox to mice and ants as 

 fair game for his own insatiable maw. 



