SOME EARLY EXPERIENCES. 39 



When I reached home an old gentleman by the name of Nel- 

 son who was a noted hunter and trapper and who lived near us, 

 came to see me. Let me explain who this Mr. Nelson was, as I 

 shall have more to say of him. 



Mr. Nelson was one of the early settlers in this county, mov- 

 ing here at an early date -from Washington County, New York 

 State. He was known here as Uncle Horatio and by many as 

 Squire Nelson, as he was a Justice of the Peace here for thirty 

 years. 



Mr. Nelson would always come to our house as soon as he 

 found that I was at home, to see what luck I had in the way of 

 trapping and hunting. On this occasion, Mr. Nelson, or Uncle 

 Horatio, as we always called him, was soon over to learn what 

 luck I had and when I t'old him what sort of a time I had try- 

 ing to outwit the bear, he said I had better build a deadfall and 

 let the bear kill himself. Uncle said that Bruin would give me 

 much trouble and was likely to leave and I would not get him at 

 all. This idea I did not like, for I had, before this, been put to 

 my wit's end to outwit a cunning old fox, but finally succeeded in 

 catching him and I thought I could outwit such a dumb thing as 

 a bear. I thought if I could not get the bear in a steel trap, there 

 would be but little use trying to get him in such a clumsy thing 

 as a deadfall however, Uncle had trapped bear long before I 

 was born and knew what he was talking about. 



As soon as I got back to camp I went to the bear trap to 

 relieve Bruin of his troubles, but it was not the bear that was in 

 trouble, but myself, for Bruin had been there and torn out a 

 st9ne at one side of the pen and had taken the bait. Well, the 

 case was getting desperate, so I got another trap and set it at 

 the side where the bear took the bait the last time, taking all the 

 pains possible in 'setting the trap, but the result was no better than 

 before. 



I had made it a habit to hang on a small bait near the bear 

 traps, believing that the bear would be attracted by the scent of 

 the bait hanging up from the ground more than it would from the 

 bait in the pen. At this trap I had hung up the bait in a bush 

 that extended out from the bank over the brook and each time 



