58 ' HUNTING AND FISHING IN FLORIDA, 



rode directly o\'er a large rattlesnake which coiled and rattled, hut 

 did not offer to strike the horse as he stepped over it. I dismounted 

 and shot its head to pieces with a rifle bullet : first taking several 

 snap photographs of it, holding the kodak as close to its ugly head 

 as I dared as it lay there rattling and ready to strike. It was a 

 thick, heavy snake, although not a very long one, measuring five 

 feet, nine inches. It had nine rattles and a button.* 



Upon reaching the water holes I found one of them dry, but there 

 was water in the other and a large bear had visited it within a few 

 hours. His tracks were very plain and fresh in the soft mud and 

 sand about the hole. 



The dogs got awav well together, Trip and Tige leading, followed 

 by Brown and the others. Several of my dogs will run a bear well 

 for a short distance, but will not fight or bring him "to bay'" by 

 biting and snapping at his legs. Trip will follow a bear all day and 

 ba\' him alone at times, and this was the case to-day. The dogs 

 iumped the bear within ten minutes after being started, and he ran 

 for about two miles to the north, Qiiarterman and I following along 

 the marsh and keeping within hearing of the dogs and Gale. Gale's 

 yells to encourage the dogs could be heard when we could not hear 

 the hounds. Soon after the bear turned to the southeast and we 

 could hear nothing of the dogs or Gale. 



Quarterman rode further north, while I galloped south to an old 

 trail through the scrub, on the chance that the bear might have gone 

 that way. As I reached the trail I heard Trip, and a few minutes 

 after saw the bear crossing a ridge about a hundred yards off, where 

 the scrub was low and thin. I had a fair chance at him, but just as 

 I fired mv horse swerved just enough to spoil the shot, and the next 

 minute he was off and away in a thicket where no horse could fol- 

 low. Pat came up with Tige and Brown, and I put them on the 

 fresh trail, which the}' eagerly took and went off giving tongue finely. 

 Shortly after two, or perhaps three, of the dogs "bayed" the bear 

 in a small live-oak hummock, but he was off again before I could 

 come up with them. It was now getting hot and three hounds came 



* Other photographs of living rattlesnakes will be'tound under the chapter on Florida snakes. 



