A hunter's life. 24^ 



a stout grunt, and ran off, over a small stream, on to the 

 hill on the other side, where he howled again. I again 

 ran below him and howled, but got no answer. I howled 

 until, having no more hope of seeing or hearing him again, 

 I turned toward my fire, and moved along until I ap- 

 proached the place where I heard him last. 



I had noticed that the howling seemed to proceed from 

 a pine-tree which had a very large top ; and, as I returned, 

 I saw a hawk going from the top of a tall poplar, and 

 making a noise as if he saw something. When I observed 

 him, I saw that he was gazing at the spot where the wolf 

 had given his last howl ; so I turned and went toward the 

 big pine, and there found the wolf, as dead as a herring. 



This greedy animal had smelled the blood on my clothes, 

 as also the roasting venison ; and if his associates had 

 been within hearing, and had come to his assistance when 

 he was howling for them, I have no doubt that his inten- 

 tion was to attack me. But he was afraid to tackle me by 

 himself, lest I should be too hard to get through with ; and 

 therefore he was willing to let me alone. 



In October of the year 1819, I set a trap for bears, 

 which I examined one evening, and found untouched. 

 That night it rained ; and the following day being a fine 

 one for hunting, I started off for the same ground in which 

 the trap was set ; and in passing by, I thought I would 

 look at it again. 



The trap being laid at the side of a high rook, I could 

 stand on the top of the rock and examine it without mak 

 ing any tracks about it to scare the game. So I went on 

 the top of the rock, and saw that the trap was down, and 

 that a small bear had his head under the fore-part of it. 

 On going down from the rock, I saw that the head of the 

 bear was flattened out by the weight of the trap ; but, 

 there being a crack left, through which I could see in, I 

 saw another bear inside tlie trap. I did not want to shoot 

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