258 The Wilderness Hunter. 



three or four at a time ; but the dogs of these southern 

 bear-hound packs are not fitted for such work, and if they 

 try to close with the bear he is certain to play havoc with 

 them, disembowelling them with blows of his paws or 

 seizing them in his arms and biting through their spines 

 or legs. The riders follow the hounds through the cane- 

 brakes, and also try to make cutoffs and station themselves 

 at open points where they think the bear will pass, so that 

 they may get a shot at him. The weapons used are rifles, 

 shotguns, and occasionally revolvers. 



Sometimes, however, the hunter uses the knife. Gen- 

 eral Wade Hampton, who has probably killed more black 

 bears than any other man living in the United States, 

 frequently used the knife, slaying thirty or forty with this 

 weapon. His plan was, when he found that the dogs had 

 the bear at bay, to walk up close and cheer them on. They 

 would instantly seize the bear in a body, and he would 

 then rush in and stab it behind the shoulder, reaching over 

 so as to inflict the wound on the opposite side from that 

 where he stood. He escaped scathless from all these 

 encounters save one, in which he was rather severely torn 

 in the forearm. Many other hunters have used the knife, 

 but perhaps none so frequently as he ; for he was always 

 fond of steel, as witness his feats with the " white arm " 

 during the Civil War. 



General Hampton always hunted with large packs of 

 hounds, managed sometimes by himself and sometimes by 

 his negro hunters. He occasionally took out forty dogs 

 at a time. He found that all his dogs together could not 

 kill a big fat bear, but they occasionally killed three-year- 



