THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 45 



the mountain people, being used for rheumatism, sore 

 throats, backache and other ailments. It is also prized 

 as a finishing dressing for harness. Bear paws are 

 still conspicuous ornaments on many backwoods barns 

 and sheds in our mountain Counties. 



For years Aaron Hall, who was also a noted hunter 

 of panthers, wolves and deer, maintained a stone 

 hunting lodge on Rock Run, where he would inv-ite a 

 select coterie every season to hunt with him. Those 

 who shared the great Nimrod's hospitality had to be 

 up to a certain standard of hardiness, and when it 

 was intimated that Hon. Coleman K. Sober, then a 

 young business man of Lewisburg, would like to join 

 his party, word' was sent that if he could stand the 

 pace, he was welcome. 



The initiation the first day consisted of a twenty- 

 three mile tramp on snowshoes after a famous old 

 bear named Lame Legs, which was finally run down 

 and shot at his lair on the third day of the hunt, after 

 he had "circled" his pursuers many times and traveled 

 about sixty miles. At that time Aaron Hall had the 

 skins of eleven full grown panthers at his camp, and 

 several unusually large bear hides. William J. Emert, 

 the well-known automobile repairer at Youngdale, 

 Clinton County, tells how in his younger days, about 

 1885, he disturbed a she-bear with cubs out McElhat- 

 tan Gap. The watchful mother, thinkincr that he 

 meant 'harm to her young, made after him, and "Bill," 

 being unarmed', sprinted down the Gap, being closely 

 pursued by the snorting "Musquaw" for a distance of 



