The Black Bear. 257 



vidual characteristics developing into peculiarities. Most 

 of the wilder districts in the eastern States still preserve 

 memories of some such old hunter who lived his long life 

 alone, waging ceaseless warfare on the vanishing game, 

 whose oddities, as well as his courage, hardihood, and 

 woodcraft, are laughingly remembered by the older set- 

 tlers, and who is usually best known as having killed the 

 last wolf or bear or cougar ever seen in the locality. 



Generally the weapon mainly relied on by these old 

 hunters is the rifle ; and occasionally some old hunter will 

 be found even to this day who uses a muzzle loader, such 

 as Kit Carson carried in the middle of the century. There 

 are exceptions to this rule of the rifle however. In the 

 years after the Civil War one of the many noted hunters of 

 southwest Virginia and east Tennessee was Wilbur Waters, 

 sometimes called The Hunter of White Top. He often 

 killed black bear with a knife and dogs. He spent all his 

 life in hunting and was very successful, killing the last 

 gang of wolves to be found in his neighborhood ; and he 

 slew innumerable bears, with no worse results to himself 

 than an occasional bite or scratch. 



In the southern States the planters living in the wilder 

 regions have always been in the habit of following the 

 black bear with horse and hound, many of them keeping 

 regular packs of bear hounds. Such a pack includes not 

 only pure-bred hounds, but also cross-bred animals, and 

 some sharp, agile, hard-biting fierce dogs and terriers. 

 They follow the bear and bring him to bay but do not try to 

 kill him, although there are dogs of the big fighting breeds 

 which can readily master a black bear if loosed at him 



