SOME EARLY EXPERIENCES. 51 



bear had made a bed by breaking down briers and gnawing down 

 saplings, but he did not stay long at this place when he again 

 went on. 



I soon came to another such bed and after finding several 

 more, came to one that was fresher than the others. I could see 

 that the bed had been made during the night. I now began to 

 work my way along the trail very cautiously with my gun in hand 

 ready for action and my heart in my mouth for I knew that Bruin 

 would soon be on the move. I worked my way through the jam 

 at a snail's pace and soon heard the rattle of the trap and could 

 see the brush move not more than a hundred feet away. 



The undergrowth was so thick that I could get no distinct 

 sight of the bear but fired a shot more to let Uncle know that 

 Bruin was on the move than of any expectation of hitting him. 

 When the gun cracked the bear gave a snort like that of a fright- 

 ened hog and I could hear him tearing through the brush at a 

 great rate. It was not long until I heard Uncle shoot and in the 

 course of two or three minutes I heard him shoot again and knew 

 that Bruin had given up the trap. 



After I had gone along the trail quite a ways, I saw a few 

 drops of blood now and then and when I reached Uncle he was 

 already skinning the bear. We found three holes in the bear. 

 Uncle's second shot which was the finishing shot, hit the bear in 

 the head. The shot that I fired caught Bruin just forward of the 

 hips and undoubtedly would have killed him in time. 



We skinned the bear and took the hind quarters, the skin and 

 trap and started for camp. I must say that I think this was the 

 hardest stunt of packing that I remember and every old trapper 

 knows what sort of a job of toting he often runs up against. We 

 went down the run about two miles before coming to the stream 

 that our camp was on, and then we had to go up this stream about 

 four miles to camp. When we reached the stream it was dark ; 

 there was no path and there was a great deal of fallen timber and 

 undergrowth along the creek, the creek winding around from one 

 side of the valley to the other. It was a continual fording of the 

 creek, climbing over fallen timber, through undergrowth and what 

 not. You know no one but a trapper would be silly enough to do 



