Its FORTY-FOUR YEARS OF 



tied it rouud the bear's neck ; wlieu Charley pulled at his 

 head, and I pushed behind, till we got him to the mouth 

 of the hole ; which, being seven or eight feet perpendicu- 

 larly, we could not pull him up to the top. But at last I 

 thought of a plan by which we could effect it ; and taking 

 my tomahawk, I cut down a sapling which had a limb 

 projecting far out from the trunk. This sapling we 

 placed over the seam in the rock ; and tying one end of 

 the rope to the bear's neck, and the other round the sap- 

 ling, we took hold of the limb and turned the sapling 

 round till we raised the bear's head up to the top of the 

 rock ; when we tied the limb fast, to keep it in place while 

 we pulled the hind-parts up. In this way we got the car- 

 cass on the surface of the ground. 



We then made a fire, to keep ourselves from freezing 

 while we skinned him ; after which, we each carried a 

 quarter to the camp. The remainder we carried to the 

 camp the next morning, when Charley started off to pro- 

 cure a horse and boy to take the meat home. I continued 

 hunting till the horse arrived ; when, having loaded him, 

 and sent him off, I hunted through the woods on my way 

 home, but without success. 



Reaching home after night, I found the bear lying in 

 the middle of the floor ; for, when the horse arrived with 

 his load, Mary and the children being unable to take it off, 

 and having no help, she led the horse into the house, cut 

 the strings that tied the meat together, and let it fall ; but 

 first she laid skins on the floor, to keep the grease off tiie 

 boards ; and there I found it when I came in 



After a few days, I met Mr. John Friend ; and when he 

 heard of our having gone into the hole, and of our there 

 killing such a fine bear, he said he knew of a hole in which 

 bears frequently wintered, and asked me if I would go with 

 him to see if there was not one in it now. I agreed to 



