Jl-eetyg 



IN December, 1820, there being a light snow, Merritt, with 

 two other companions, one of whom had been a sailor, while 

 upon a hunting excursion, came upon the track of a full 

 grown bear, which after following for a time, they found had 

 ascended a huge white-wood, or poplar tree. This had been 

 broken off some seventy feet from the ground, and it was 

 supposed that the bear must have secreted itself within its 

 hollow at the top. Unwilling to lose their game, and ready 

 for any daring enterprise, they looked about for ways and 

 means to accomplish their object. They first proposed cutting 

 the tree down. But this at the root was sound and riot less 

 than eighteen feet in circumference. This with only one axe, 

 (18) 



