168 pioneer life; OB, 



them, and I did not wish to kill him out of mere 

 wantonness. The bear has an Instinctive fear of 

 man, and unless wounded will always flee from his 

 presence. When wounded they will fight with a 

 desperation which renders it perilous to attack them. 

 Once while out on a deer-hunt, my wanderings hav- 

 ing led me to a grove of tall cherry-trees, I heard a 

 crackling and rustling overhead. After looking and 

 listening awhile I perceived a bear in a lofty cherry- 

 tree, gathering the fruit, it being the season when it 

 was ripe. He would break and drop to the earth the 

 large limbs which were covered with fruit, watching 

 each limb until it reached the ground, and if one 

 lodged on a lower branch, he went down and liber- 

 ated it. I observed his proceedings for fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, and then concealing myself behind 

 a tree, I called to him at the top of my voice If a 

 sudden shock of an earthquake had prostrated the 

 tree in which he was stationed, Bruin could not have 

 experienced more astonishment than he exhibited at 

 the sound of my voice, breaking the stillness of the 

 forest. He raised himself erect upon his haunches 

 and stood looking eagerly around with a ludicrous 

 mixture of astonishment and defiance. I stepped 

 out from my concealment, and again called, when, 

 with a loud cry of terror, he slipped off the limb, 

 but while still grasping it with his fore paws he 

 looked to the ground. The tree leaned over a small 

 precipice, and if he relinquished his hold he must 

 fall at least a hundred feet. He hung there appa- 

 rently balancing the matter in his mind, for a few 



