86 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



on the opposite side from where the trail had entered but we 

 would always find that Bruin was still on the go. We were in a 

 locality where there were apparently a good many deer and we 

 saw signs of marten quite often. 



We were now on the head waters of Hunts Run in Cameron 

 county and we decided to make that section our next hunting 

 ground. While the trail would wind about some, yet bruin's 

 general course was south. Often when bruin would vary con- 

 siderably from his general course and go into a thicket or wind 

 jam, we would feel sure that this time we would find him nap- 

 ping, but we were disappointed each time. Once when we were 

 circling one of these thickets, I drove a deer out and it ran 

 to Bill who gave him his finish. We were near a lumber camp 

 and sold it for ten dollars and our night's lodging and some grub. 

 We were now getting pretty well down to the railroad near 

 Sterling Run. We were sure that bruin was going to cross the 

 railroad so we left the trail and went down to the railroad and 

 followed along the road until we came to the trail. 



The bear had crossed the road during the night and no one 

 had noticed the trail. Here I suggested to Bill that we take a 

 train to Kane and go to camp and go out and take a wood job,, 

 but Bill thought that we had about all the job on our hands 

 that we were able to attend to. He was right, for as near as I 

 can remember, the trail led us nearly a half day's tramp before 

 bruin made a stop. The foot that the trap was on began to bleed 

 considerably. We began to fear that the foot would come off 

 and bruin relieved of the trap would escape after all. 



We now had some more help, two men took the trail ahead 

 of us following it until nearly dark when they apparently held 

 a council of war, judging from the way they tracked about 

 where they left the trail. We were now in a pine slashing and 

 concluded to camp on the trail, though we knew that we were 

 not far from a lumber camp as we could hear men chopping and 

 driving oxen. We were lucky in finding a good place to camp 

 and water close at hand. As we had a small tin pail with us 

 and coffee, we made a pail of coffee and ate our lunch and 

 fixed our bunk, then we sat down before the fire for a time 



