HUNTING THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR. 109 



BIAR HUNTERS. 



a tree and laid in a path which has been partially stained with 

 blood, by drawing a newly killed carcass along it. At other times 

 a noose, suspended from a strong bough, is substituted for the 

 trap, in a path similarly prepared. The bear, whose sense of 

 smell is exceedingly keen, alway follows upon the track along 

 which a dead animal has been drawn, even although it has left 

 no trace perceptible by the human senses. 



The common mode of hunting this bear is by two or three 

 well-trained dogs. When he finds that he is pursued, he gene 

 rally pushes forward for eight or ten miles, and sometimes more, 

 in nearly a straight course. But when the dogs come up to him, 

 he turns and strikes at them with his paws, the blows of which 

 are so severe, that one of them taking effect, would instantly fell 

 the strongest dog to the ground. The great art in training the 

 dogs consists in teaching them to avoid these blows, and keep 

 harassing the animal till he is exhausted. When that is the 

 case, he climbs a tree to the height of twenty or thirty feet, at 

 the root of which the dogs remain and " give tongue " till the 

 hunter makes his appearance. When the hunter appears, the 

 bear drops to the ground, not for the purpose of attacking him, 

 but of making a new effort at escape from the no v increased 

 number of his pursuers. But, as he is heated by the effort of 

 climbing and by the fall, though bears, from their form and also 

 the nature of their covering, fall with much less injury than any 



