XXVI 



RECREATION. 



AN UNPREMEDITATED BEAR 

 HUNT. 



One day in the latter l ;part of October, 

 '98, Jim Messer and I left Shoal Bay, 

 Thurlow island, B. C, to go to the head of 

 Frederick's Arm, an inlet on the mainland, 

 to work in a mine near tidewater. We 

 reached the head of the inlet at 9 a. m., tied 

 our boat and took the trail toward the 

 mine. I was leading, and had gone per- 

 haps 200 yards, when I saw a dark object 

 behind a large spruce ahead of me. At 

 first I thought it was a man, but the next 

 moment a full grown black bear came from 

 behind the tree toward me. She came 

 within 40 feet of me, grunted and turned 

 back. This she did several times. Then I 

 noticed a cub climbing the tree, keeping 

 carefully on the opposite side, but occa- 

 sionally taking a peep at me. 



Presently Jim came up. The bear con- 

 tinued to advance and retreat alternately. 

 As we had no weapon larger than a jack- 

 knife, we backed away and debated 

 whether to proceed or to go back to Shoal 

 Bay for our guns. Jim did not want to 

 go back, and urged me to try to pass the 

 bear. Right after our retreat the old bear 

 had climbed the tree, but while Jim and I 

 were talking she came down again. When 

 we advanced toward the tree she resumed 

 her former tactics, finally coming so close 

 that Jim fell back in disorder and refused 

 to go farther on that trail. 



There was no other trail, and no one 

 familiar with the British Columbian coast 

 will blame us for our disinclination to 

 break a fresh one through the dense under- 

 brush. We knew there was a mine mid- 

 way to the shore and we determined to 

 return that far and borrow a gun with 

 which to persuade the bear to let us pass. 

 However, we found the mine deserted, 

 and, in exceedingly bad humor, we con- 

 tinued our journey to Shoal Bay. We had 

 to contend with a strong headtide, but got 

 to town in time for dinner. Early in the 

 afternoon we loaded our camping outfit 

 and guns in the boat and started back to 

 resume our argument with the bear. 



We had a 56-56 Spencer carbine and a 

 10 guage shot gun. The carbine I bought 

 from a friend for 50 cents when I left New 

 York. When I • arrived at Victoria the 

 customs officer charged me 60 cents duty 

 on it. He admitted it wasn't worth that 

 much, but I suppose he needed the money. 

 Had I not had 100 pounds of ammunition 

 for the gun I would have made the Custom 

 House a present of it. 



Our camping: outfit was rather limited. 

 We used the boat sail for a tent, and that, 

 by the way, was the only use I ever found 

 for a sail among the islands of the coast. 

 Meaner as the outfit was, we needed it, 

 having decided to stay in the country sev- 

 eral days and find out what was in it be- 

 sides the 2 bears. 



Though we did not really expect to see 

 those animals again, Jim went ahead with 

 the carbine when we neared the place 

 where we had left them. Presently I 

 heard a shout from Jim and saw tfe@ 2 



bears climbing the same tree that they had 

 gone up in the morning. The old one 

 stopped at the first branch, while the cub 

 went higher. Jim fired at the old bear 

 with no apparent effect, save to make her 

 angry; she growled and showed her teeth. 

 Jim fired again, with no better result. In 

 preparing for another shot he got the car- 

 tridge in ahead of the extractor. While 

 trying to rectify his mistake the bear came 

 down the tree, keeping it between herself 

 and us. At the first chance I put a load 

 of buckshot in her neck. She walked 

 about 20 yards and dropped. The buck- 

 shot were not needed, for, as we afterward 

 found, Jim's shots would have quickly fin- 

 ished her. We shot the cub also, after 

 deciding that it was too large for us to 

 catch alive. 



The bear had been catching salmon in a 

 neighboring creek, and that was doubtless 

 the reason they had remained so long in 

 one place. We found a number of salmon 

 under the tree, some whole, some partly 

 eaten, while of others only the bones re- 

 mained. 



We were proud of our game at the time, 

 but later we wished we had never seen it. 

 It encouraged us to take a 3 months' hunt- 

 ing and trapping trip farther up the coast, 

 which proved a dismal failure, and I could 

 write most feelingly about the game we 

 did not get on that trip. 



Ernest Neye, Fernie, B. C. 



HAD TO SHINE 'EM. 



In the early days in Montana, when cow 

 punchers with high heeled boots, big som- 

 breros and an arsenal of 6 shooters were 

 plentiful, a cowboy, dressed in his best 

 clothes, with a dazzling shine on his high 

 top boots, sauntered down the street of a 

 small frontier town one Sunday morning. 

 As he started over a crossing the only 

 sprinkling cart the town could boast of 

 came along. . The driver eyed the boots, 

 and with a sly smile pulled the string just 

 in time to drench the boots from top to 

 bottom, completely spoiling the shine. 



Quick, as a flash the cow ouncher pulled 

 his 45 from its holster and ordered the 

 driver to crawl down from his perch. Call- 

 ing a bootblack, the cowboy made the driv- 

 er get on his knees, take the shining outfit 

 and shine both boots from the soles to the 

 tops. The driver didn't seem to fancy per- 

 forming the menial service, but the muzzle 

 of the revolver . didn't look good to the 

 practical joker, and he eot busy in a hurry. 

 When the job was finished the cowboy 

 made the driver pay the bootblack 50 cents 

 for the blacking he had used. Shoving his 

 gun back into its holster, the cowboy 

 sauntered leisurely down the street, a satis- 

 fied smile playing on his countenance. The 

 driver mounted his seat and drove away, a 

 sadder but a wiser man." — Seattle Post-In- 

 telligencer. 



"What do you want to see the Czar for?" 

 "I'm the agent for a bomb-proof 

 carriage." — Life 



