THE BLACK BEAR. 



55 



Saturday, Dec. i6, 1893: I hunted the hirge "hammock'" 

 where we lost the big bear yesterday. Tom Murray went with me, 

 and Pat and Gale looked after the horses and dogs. Trip found a 

 fresh trail of an old she bear and ran south with the other dogs for 

 several miles before the}' hnallv " ba^'ed " her in a thick, high scrub. 

 I could hear her growling and snapping at the dogs ; but could not 

 see her, and the next moment she was off again with the dogs at her 



heels. She ran south a mile or more; but 'we took the open beach, 

 and, riding fast, headed her in a rather open bit of country with low 

 palmetto scrub not far north of Cape Canaveral. Tom Murray rode 

 in ahead of her, and she turned and passed within tvvent}' feet of me, 

 and I dropped her stone dead with a quartering shoulder shot. She 

 was the tirst and only bear that I have ever killed with a single bul- 

 let so dead as to not even kick after being hit. She was a very old 

 female, although rather small, probabl}' weighing less than three 



