BATISTE, THE BEAR HUNTER 159 



ing crosses and crucifixes blind as he was, but he never 

 made any chefs d ceuvre&quot; 



Such is bear-hunting and such is the nature of the 

 bear. And these things are not of the past. Wher 

 ever long-range repeaters have not put the fear of man 

 in the animal heart, the bear is the aggressor. Even 

 as I write comes word from a little frontier fur post 

 which I visited in 1901, of a seven-year-old boy being 

 waylaid and devoured by a grisly only four miles back 

 from a transcontinental railway. This is the second 

 death from the unprovoked attacks of bears within a 

 month in that country and that month, the month of 

 August, 1902, when sentimental ladies and gentlemen 

 many miles away from danger are sagely discussing 

 whether the bear is naturally ferocious or not 

 whether, in a word, it is altogether humane to hunt 

 bears. 



