258 BIG GAME OF WORTH AMERICA. 



ance doubly sure, I followed it up with the use of my cane- 

 knife. 



I have hunted with several packs of Bear-dogs owned by 

 famous Bear-hunters. These packs generally consist of 

 from twenty to thirty dogs — a team sufficient to pull a big 

 Bear down for an instant, and only an instant, when, if not 

 killed by the knife or gun, it would rise, shake off the dogs 

 as a huge Mastiff would a Fice, and then several of the 

 pack would be killed in less time than I employ in writing 

 this sentence. A trained team of Bear-dogs will not rush 

 <on a large Bear to pull it down until the hunter gets up to 

 them, and with yells urges them on the growling, snapping, 

 enraged brute. The best Bear-dogs I ever owned or hunted 

 with were pure thorough-bred black-and-tan Deer-hounds. 

 They proved the most reliable for striking cold trails, and 

 the very best fighters. I generally crossed upon the Scottish 

 Lurcher the black-and-tan Hound, and often this cross upon 

 a good fighting cur, for the bulk of the team. The Collie 

 crossed on the Hound made a splendid fighter. 



Bull-dogs and Bull-terriers were of no account. I have 

 seen powerful Bull-dogs turn tail and run home at the sight 

 of an enraged Bear. A cross of the Bull-dog on a cur or 

 Hound always resulted in the death of the dog. The hunt- 

 ers wanted dogs, not to hold on, like Bull-terriers, but, on 

 the order of the Greyhound or Wolf-hound, to snap and 

 spring back, and never to give up fighting in that manner 

 until the Bear was killed. 



I have known a Hound bitch to fight a Bear for forty- 

 eight hours, until a hunter came to her assistance and 

 killed the Bear. It was over thirty miles from where the 

 Bear was started to where it was killed. No other breed of 

 dogs would have followed a Bear so long. 



The best gun that the early Bear-hunters of my time 

 used was a first-class double-barrel shotgun, No. 12 in 

 bore, with thick barrels, using a ball that fitted them, to be 

 patched as in a smooth-bore rifle. 



A cane-knife, from eighteen to twenty inches long, of. the 

 best metal, and weighing not less than four to five pounds, 



