378 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



the bear out to the edge of the cane, and my companion 

 wound his horn to summon the other hunters. 



This was a big she-bear, very lean, and weighing two 

 hundred and two pounds. In her stomach were pal- 

 metto berries, beetles and a little mutton cane, but chiefly 

 acorns chewed up in a fine brown mass. 



John Mcllhenny had killed a she-bear about the size 

 of this on his plantation at Avery's Island the previous 

 June. Several bears had been raiding his corn fields and 

 one evening he determined to try to waylay them. After 

 dinner he left the ladies of his party on the gallery of his 

 house while he rode down in a hollow and concealed him- 

 self on the lower side of the corn field. Before he had 

 waited ten minutes a she-bear and her cub came into the 

 field. Then she rose on her hind legs, tearing down an 

 armful of ears of corn which she seemingly gave to the 

 cub, and then rose for another armful. Mcllhenny shot 

 her; tried in vain to catch the cub; and rejoined the party 

 on the veranda, having been absent but one hour. 



After the death of my bear I had only a couple of 

 days left. We spent them a long distance from camp, 

 having to cross two bayous before we got to the hunting 

 grounds. I missed a shot at a deer, seeing little more than 

 the flicker of its white tail through the dense bushes; 

 and the pack caught and killed a very lean two-year-old 

 bear weighing eighty pounds. Near a beautiful pond 

 called Panther Lake we found a deer-lick, the ground not 

 merely bare but furrowed into hollows by the tongues of 

 the countless generations of deer that had frequented 

 the place. We also passed a huge mound, the only hillock 



