AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



ferocity, and exceeding courage, for half an hour, but the 

 Bear was an overmatch for them, and we were fearful that 

 he would bite them in pieces, and escape at last, without 

 our being able to get a ball into him. Amongst our dogs 

 was a favourite old dog, we called "Drive," and, without 

 exception, the best dog to hunt I ever saw, and, withal, 

 the most courageous; he had been our companion, both in 

 toil and pleasure, for several years, and his encounters with 

 wild animals were so numerous, that, often has been the 

 time, that we carried him fi'om the field of battle helpless 

 and mangled, for miles, to our homes, but always on reco- 

 vering, was eager to engage in deadly strife with any mon- 

 ster of the forest. This old dog, in the present battle, had 

 seized the Bear by the back of the neck with so firm a hold, 

 as to disable him, in some measure, from injuring the other 

 dogs. The Bear, however, endeavoured to rid himself of 

 Drive in every possible way, but to no effect; thinking now 

 it would be a good opportunity to despatch him, I resolved 

 to try the virtue of my hunting knife, and approached him 

 with a view of stabbing him, but the Bear immediately 

 broke away from the dogs, and then threw himself on his 

 back again, and when in this position, I stood my rifle 

 against a tree, and attempted to make the fatal stroke, 

 but the Bear anticipated my intention, and met my blow, 

 with a stroke of his paw, with so much force as to knock 

 the knife from my hand to a distance of thirty feet, and 

 then arose, and made a bold push at me, but I showed him 

 a light pair of heels, and being again seized by the dogs, 

 deterred him from farther pursuit. We then thought of 

 other means, and commenced cutting large clubs; but whilst 

 engaged at this, the Bear, disrelishing his new enemies, 

 cleared himself of the dogs, %vhich were so disabled by this 

 time, that they could hardly fight more, and made off at 

 full speed. I seized my rifle, and just as he was springing 

 over an old hemlock log, I fired at him, but being afraid 

 of shooting the dogs, I shot too high, and only cut him 

 across the rump as he pitched over the log, this put him 

 to a stand, and he ascended a tree, to the height of about 

 forty feet, when I approached, and shot him through the 

 heart. 



We examined the dogs, and found, although badly 

 wounded, they would be enabled to reach home with care 

 and assistance. 



A few days previous to the above hunt, I had set a large 

 spring-trap for Bears, made of iron, for the purpose, and 

 acted similar to a spring rat-trap, but with square joints, 

 and two large springs acting against them, with two smaller 

 springs inside of these: beneath the jaws were arranged a 

 number of iron spikes, so that, as soon as the trap sprung, 

 it held its prisoner perfectly secure. These traps usually 

 weighed forty or fifty pounds, to which were appended, by 

 Aa 



means of chains, cloggs of wood, four or five feet in 

 length, to prevent the caught animal from escaping. We, 

 therefore, at the commencement of this day's chase, had 

 sent our two men to the trap to ascertain, if any animal 

 was caught; and while we were engaged in dressing the 

 Bear we had just killed, these men came to us with infor- 

 mation, that a large Bear was caught by the trap, and so 

 securely, that there was no probability of his escaping, as 

 the trap had closed upon him about eight inches above his 

 paw. The day was drawing to its close, and having before 

 us sufficient to employ the balance of time before night 

 set in, we concluded to leave the trapped Bear for another 

 day's excursion, and make arrangements to get home our 

 dogs, in which we succeeded, and had them well provided 

 for, until they would finally recover. 



The next morning, several of our neighbours joined us 

 in our excursion after the caught Bear; our number amount- 

 ed to eight or ten persons, full of glee, and with the pros- 

 pect of a fine day's sport; armed with but an axe, and one 

 rifle, we sallied forth, with an addition to our list of dogs, 

 after our sable antagonist. We soon reached the scene of 

 our operations, and judged, the Bear must have been en- 

 trapped several days, as he was somewhat fatigued ; and, 

 during his repeated endeavours to rid himself of the trap, 

 had broken the bone of his leg, so that it held him merely 

 by the skin and sinews. At our approach, however, he 

 hobbled off, and seizing the (rap in his mouth, and running 

 on three legs, made considerable progress; but the j-oung 

 dogs soon fastened on him, and fought very handsomely, 

 and in order to give the Bear a better chance to defend 

 himself, we cut him loose from the trap; being thus disen- 

 cumbered, he boxed the dogs about pretty freely, until an 

 old dog, which we had kept in reserve, seized him by the 

 back of the neck, with so much ferocity, as to compel the 

 Bear to back himself against a large hemlock log, which 

 prevented the dogs from getting behind him, by which 

 means he kept them at a respectful distance. As conside- 

 rable time had elapsed since we first found him, we began 

 to grow weary, and concluded, that if it was possible to 

 master him, we would bind him and carry him home alive, 

 for a siglit to the ladies of our village; and having deter- 

 mined on sport that day, we were unwilling to put an end 

 to it by destroying the Bear, especially as our number 

 warranted the belief that we could take him home a pri- 

 soner, or that eight or ten stout men could secure one 

 disabled Bear — but here was the difficulty — how were we 

 to secure him, without danger to ourselves? Various plans 

 were proposed, but none seemed practicable; at last J — , 

 an old hunter, and a large athletic man, proposed the fol- 

 lowing, which was to cut a long pole, with a large fork at 

 one end, and crawl behind the Bear, and while his atten- 



