THIRTY YEARS A HUXTER. 125 



follow the bear. From the middle of January until 

 July we did not make a business Of hunting bears 

 or elk. In our winter hunts we used to go to the 

 Round Islands, and be gone from three to six days, 

 killing, in that time, from six to eight elk. Some- 

 times we would kill three or four bears in one hunt. 

 We seldom failed in killing a bear after having found 

 the track. The dogs would either drive them up a 

 tree or stop them. We owned three well-trained dogs. 

 If we put them on a track they would not leave it 

 for any other; they would always come when we 

 called, and never go until we gave the word. When- 

 ever a bear crossed the creek, the dogs always fol- 

 lowed ; if the water was too deep for us to wade 

 through, we had to construct a float on which to cross, 

 always keeping up the pursuit with success. If the 

 guns missed fire the dogs would manage to stop the 

 bear ; they would not give up the chase unsuccess- 

 fully. I have known them to tree a bear and remain 

 by it two days. During the three years that we lived 

 at that place we never lost one after we came up with 

 it. The one that killed the first of any kind of ani 

 mal was to have the skin. 



My brother killed from twenty-five to thirty elk 

 and twenty to twenty-five bears each year. I did not 

 kill as many. I usually killed from ten to twenty 

 bears, and one season 1 killed thirty-five elk. By 

 fire-hunting, hunting in the woods, and by hounding 

 deer, my brother has taken as many as seventy in a 

 season. When the deer were fat, which was about 

 the last of October, we depended a great deal tm 



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