THE BIG BEAR OF ARKANSAS. 79 
as naturally as Jim Doggett’s Bowieknife takes to 
bear.’ ” 
“ What season of the year do your hunts take 
place?” inquired a gentlemanly foreigner, who, from 
some peculiarities of his baggage, I suspected to be an 
Englishman, on some hunting expedition, probably at 
the foot of the Rocky Mountains. 
“The season for bear hunting, stranger,” 
said the 
man of Arkansaw, “is generally all the year round, and 
the hunts take place about as regular. I read in his- 
tory that varmints have their fat season, and their lean 
season. That is not the case in Arkansaw, feeding as 
they do upon the spontenacious productions of the sile, 
they have one continued fat season the year round; 
though in winter things in this way is rather more 
greasy than in summer, I must admit. Tor that reason 
bear with us run in warm weather, but in winter they 
only waddle. 
“Fat, fat! its an enemy to speed; it tames every 
thing that has plenty of it. I have seen wild turkeys, 
from its influence, as gentle as chickens. Run a bear in 
this fat condition, and the way it improves the critter for 
eating is amazing; it sort of mixes the ile up with the 
meat, until you can’t tell t’other from which. I’ve done 
this often. 
“T recollect one perty morning in particular, of 
putting an old he fellow on the stretch, and considering 
the weight he carried, be run well. But the dogs soon 
