HO FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



gone far when I came to a bed, where the bear had stopped for a 

 time. I was now sure Mr. Howard would get to his watching 

 place before the bear reached the top of the hill. I was not 

 mistaken, for it was not long until I heard Mr. Howard fire. both 

 barrels of his gun in rapid succession. I thought when I heard the 

 two shots that the bear hunt was surely over, but after listening 

 a few moments and hearing nothing from Mr. Howard I was then 

 unable to give a guess what he had done. I worked along on the 

 trail until near the top of the hill when I saw Mr. Howard 

 standing with head down and bearing the expression of a mother- 

 less colt. 



When I got up to him he said that the bear had stopped near 

 the brow of the ridge and when he came in sight, the bear started 

 across the ridge and he fired both barrels of his rifle at him but 

 the bear was so far away that he could not reach him. The bear 

 now crossed the ridge in the direction of Windfall Run, a branch 

 of the Cross Fork and toward a large windfall. We followed the 

 bear a short distance in to the windfall. Briers and brush were 

 so thick that it was almost impossible to work our way along in 

 the brush and one could scarcejy see ten feet ahead. We had 

 followed the trail but a short distance when we could hear 

 Bruin whining like a little puppy and soon we could see him 

 sitting up on his haunches and keeping up the whine. We soon 

 put an end to his troubles. When we removed the bear's entrails, 

 we found that one of the shots that we fired at him at the beginning 

 of the hunt, had passed through the lungs but had not struck any 

 large artery or any vital point. But the wound had weakened 

 him so that he was no longer able to make his way through the 

 thick "briars and brush. We had two days of sport but now the 

 real work began. 



We were about three miles from camp and any hunter who 

 has toted a three hundred pound bear or a good big deer, lashed to 

 a pole and where the route was up and down steep hills, knows 

 what sort of a job he has on his hands. But comrades, we 

 were not as old at that time as we now are and we could tote 

 a bear or deer as easy then as we could a rabbit now. 



