l8 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



to kill him with? Nothing came to my mind at first except to 

 use my gun as a club but I did not like to break it. 



In a moment I thought of my hatchet which I had taken irom, 

 the holster and laid on the bank where I had cut the bear's foot 

 off to release him from the trap. I grabbed the hatchet and one 

 good blow on the head put a stop to the rumpus and nobody 

 harmed, although the boy was badly frightened. 



At another time I might have got into trouble with a bear 

 also caught in a trap. I was quite young at this time. I had gone 

 some ten or twelve miles from home and set a trap for a bear. 

 The trap was rather a poor one with a very light chain for a bear 

 trap. I had only set the trap a few days before yet I thought I 

 must go and look after it, but it was. more the desire to be in 

 the woods than it was of expecting to have a bear in the trap 

 at that time. I did not take a gun with me, only a revolver loaded 

 as I had no more balls and this was before the days of fixed 

 ammunition. 



When I came to the trap there was an ugly bear in it and he 

 had the clog fast in some roots and among some fallen trees. 

 After firing one shot at the bear's head, which I missed, I then 

 shot the two remaining balls into the bear's body with the only 

 effect of making him more determined to get at me. I now cut 

 a good club determined to put a quietus on Bruin in that manner 

 but after landing several blows my knees began to feel weak. 

 I gave up the job and returned home leaving Bruin in the trap 

 feeling as well as he did when I first found him, so far as I 

 was able to see. But when I returned the next morning with help 

 and now with a regular gun we found Bruin nearly dead and help- 

 less from the shots that I had given him the day before from the 

 revolver. 



I have met with other circumstances not quite so fascinating 

 as those just related. At one time a young companion and I 

 were camping and trapping several miles from home and several 

 miles from a road. One day while we were some ways out from 

 camp setting traps my friend became suddenly very ill. It re- 

 quired no skilled doctor to see that it was a case that must have 

 help at once. I started with my friend to get to camp. While 



