THIRTY YEARS A HUNTER. 127 



and one for me, and kept but two of the hunting 

 dogs, as he did not expect to hunt much down there. 

 One day, just as we had arisen from dinner, we heard 

 a hog squealing, and our neighbors informed us that 

 the bear had seized another hog. I took my gun, and 

 accompanied by one dog, started out to kill him. He 

 was about one hundred rods off, walking on his hind 

 i'eet with his back towards me, his fore paws firmly 

 embracing the nearly dead hog, which weighed one 

 hundred and forty pounds. He looked back occa- 

 sionally as I approached him, and when I was within 

 seventy yards of him, he dropped the hog and turned 

 toward me, standing erect, and making, at the same 

 time, a noise peculiar to the animal. I raised my 

 gun, and taking aim at a white spot on his breast 

 where the hair was parted, sent the ball through his 

 heart. About the middle of August, we were reap- 

 ing wheat on an island that my father owned, three 

 fourths of a mile above our residence, when a boy, 

 who had been procuring water at a spring on the 

 main land, informed me that he had seen three bears 

 crossing the creek above. Taking my rifle, which I 

 always had with me when I went to work, I immedi- 

 diately started in pursuit, and soon had the satisfac- 

 tion of shooting the largest of the three, but the 

 others escaped, and I did not think it worth while to 

 follow them. 



About the middle of September, when the corn was 

 sufficiently large for roasting, the bears were in the 

 habit of coming to the island for it ; we therefore took 

 a number of poles sixteen feet long, placed them in 



