128 pioxei:r life ; or, 



the ground, and connecting the ends at the top 

 secured them firmly with bark. A Dutchman, who 

 was in my company, thatched it from bottom to top 

 with rye straw, so that when finished, it had the 

 appearance of a stack of straw. This house was for 

 the purpose of concealing ourselves and dogs when 

 the bears came to the island, so that we could surprise 

 them suddenly. The first night we both watched, but 

 did not kill anything. The next night the Dutchman 

 watched alone and succeeded in killing a large bear. 

 He asked me to watch with him the following night, 

 which I refused to do, and he watched alone, but did 

 not see any game. The next night I again refused 

 to watch with him, it being Sunday. He said it was 

 not best to let the bears eat the corn, and desired me 

 to let him have my dog. I told him to let them have 

 a little corn on Sunday. He watched but did not 

 kill any. Three days afterwards he told me that he 

 had not seen any signs of bears, but that the racccons 

 were troubling us ; accordingly I watched with him, 

 and we killed two in the evening and four at break 

 of day. Our dogs would seize them and we would 

 knock them in the head with a tomahawk, or take 

 them by the tail and dash their heads against a tree. 

 We did not watch again for some time 



One night my father said there was every appear- 

 ance of raccoons having been in the fields. The 

 Dutchman and I went out to hunt them, but returned 

 unsuccessful. Sometime after that, he said he had 

 seen the tracks of a large bear, which had torn down 

 considerable corn, and as he exnected the bear would 



