210 FORTY -FOUR YEARS OF 



his son accompauied us to where I had killed the bear, and 

 helped us to pull him out of the hole. He told me he had 

 not seen such a fat bear during the last ten years. We 

 carried home the meat, which weighed nearly three hun- 

 dred pounds ; and a piece of it, which was cut in a square 

 form, after it was salted, and raised out of the brine, mea- 

 Hured six inches of clear fat on every Hide, with not a speck 

 of lean in it. 



This bear and I had been in a fight before, during the 

 previous summer. I fixed up a canoe in the following 

 manner, for the purpose of shooting deer along Deep 

 Creek by candle-light : I took a sheet of maple-bark, 

 doubled it into the form of a half-square, and secured it in 

 place with a forked stick ; after which, I arranged a posi- 

 tion for the candle in the flat side of the bark. The flat 

 surface of the bark formed a shed-like covering over the 

 l)ack part of the canoe, while the perpendicular side, being 

 placed toward the front, entirely hid any object which 

 might be behind it, in the canoe. Two cross-laths were 

 nailed on the canoe — one across the top of it, and the 

 other inside ; and each of these was pierced with an auger- 

 hole, to receive the upright pole that held up the bark 

 shed, and the candle ; which, being a large wax one, 

 lighted up the creek to a considerable distance. 



The deer used to come into tlie creek to drink, and to 

 eat the moss, which grows on the bottom. I would take 

 the canoe up the creek in the evening, and be ready to 

 drift down as soon as the deer entered the water ; all the 

 time sitting unobserved under the shade of the bark, 

 though I could in that position see to shoot by the light 

 of the candle. 



One night I took William with me, to steer the canoe ; 

 and as we were paddling it up the creek, we found a deer, 

 wh'ch had been killed by wolves ; and I told William thai 



