Aug. 10, 1895.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



113 



"Here's cane. Let's look around a little." 



"No use without bear dogs. The only way to hunt 

 bears in the cane without dogs is to find a dry water- 

 course that runs far into the brake and follow it up till 

 you strike a wet hole where they come to wallow. Then 

 if you're on hand at the right time you can get a good 

 standing shot. But sometimes its chilly business sitting 

 there watching." 



"Aren't there any bear dogs around here?" 



"None that I know of nearer than Newport. They are 

 good for nothing else and few hunters find, it profitable to 

 train a pack for bear only." 



' 'Well, how do they get them then? Bears are no novelty 

 in the St. Louis market. At the restaurants a bear steak 

 is as cheap as beef, and the dealers say that most of the 

 animals come from Arkansas." 



"Yes: but I'll tell you how it's done. For one bear 

 killed in a fair fight there are ten killed in traps or with 



spring guns. Of course it's against the law to set a spring 

 gun, and it's only done on the sly." 



"Oh, that's the way they do it. I've been told that the 

 typical Arkansas hunter leaves his gun at home, and goes 

 into the cane after bear with nothing but a few curs and 

 a long bowie." 



"Yes; the typical Arkansas hunter in dime novels does 

 that; but I've never seen it done, and never met a reliable 

 man in Arkansas who claimed to have seen it. I won't 

 say that nobody hunts bear with a knife, for sometimes 

 one of these planters finds time hanging on his hands and 

 might be capable of anything, from riding a cyclone to 

 signing the pledge; but one such exploit with the bowie 

 will soon have a dozen heroes, and I haven't even met a 

 hero to date." 



"Still-hunting bear in the cane is not so easy, then?" 



"No: there are two impediments — the cane and the 

 bear. You have seen how it goes to navigate blue cane, 

 and you can bet a primer or two that the big knife you've 

 read about is intended for the cane itself. The only way 

 to go through some of these brakes is to get into them 

 with something like a corn-knife or the machete that 

 they use in the tropical jungles. As for Mr. Bear, he isn't 

 half the fool that he looks. If there is any animal that 

 can smell corduroy or dead-leaf canvas further, I don't 



know him, and as for ears— there went a white flag! 

 Didn't you see it, past that old pecan?" 



"No: I was thinking of bear, and looking for 'simmons." 



"Too bad; the deer down here don't make allowance 

 for absent-minded people." 



"Well, we're not hunting to-day, you know; we're 

 exercising our legs and tongues to get up an appetite, and 

 you had the floor. Do you suppose there are any bears 

 left in this part of the world?" 



"There are more bears within five miles of this spot, 

 right now, than in any similar area in the Rockies. But 

 they are like some other people in caring a great deal about 

 their tummies, so they don't stay long in one place after 

 the groceries play out. We must ask the hunters where 

 to look for bear; they will Imow." 



"But if they know, why don't they go after them them- 

 selves?" 



"You haven't hunted, bear very much. After you get 



VIEW IN FRAZER CANON NEAR YALE. 

 Amateur photo by F, F. Frisbie. 



a pelt or two you can answer that question yourself." 



"Why, do they think it's dangerous?" 



"Bosh! I'd rather meet a bear any day than a razor- 

 back boar like the one that stampeded you back there at 

 Camp Copperhead. No; the trouble is that still-hunting 

 bear is a good deal like work, and dressing him and get- 

 ting him out of the cane is work. You won't catch many 

 Arkansas market-hunters going after bear, so long as 

 squirrels bring sixty cents a dozen in the Memphis mar- 

 ket. Now, where's the clearing?" 



"Right over there." 



"You're learning. That isn't five degrees off. If you 

 stay around here a few weeks you'll get like Acree's old 

 mule — can't get lost if you try. You've been there often 

 enough not to get rattled?" 



"Yes; but I've always had a snack with me, and I'll tell 

 you one thing right now. I'll never go out alone in 

 swamp or upland without a ration or two in that old shell 

 bag. If you sling the thing right, it is never in the way; 

 it holds my quart pail, with the little bags of tea, sugar 

 and salt, together with bread, a bit of bacon, tobacco, 

 map and field cleaner. With such things to back me, I 

 dou't much care whether I get lost or not." 



Thereafter the romance was gone from Whirl Creek, 

 for I was lost no more. Horace Kephart. 



IN SHINTANGLE CAMP, 



Shintangle Camp, July 17.— Good morning, gentle- 

 men. I hope you are all very well and enjoying your- 

 selves as much as us two graybeards, who have been 

 cruising for a few days among the islands, reefs and 

 shoals which lie off the northwest coast of Lake Michigan, 

 in a 14ft. sail boat, and having experienced no serious 

 misadventures have made our camp on Gascon (pro- 

 nounced Gasco) Bay. 



This camp bears about northeast from Skilligalee (He 

 aux Galets) Sight, from which it is distant some fifteen 

 miles. To an inland dweller it has a decidedly barren ap- 

 pearance, but it possesses wondrous possibilities which 

 gradually unfold as we investigate, and we cannot hope 

 to reach the end thereof during our stay. 



Just here I seem to hear from the man in the club win- 

 dow the words: 



"How's the fishing?" 



Really, my son, I cannot say, as we have not fished. 



Then in a low voice speaks the New Hampshire lad: 

 "Well, I swow, I'd a took a hook 'n line along." 



That is but reasonable, and we have in fact made pro- 

 vision to satisfy those cravings or desires of humanity 

 which can only be allayed by a stick and a string with a 

 fish at one end thereof. 



But along this shore trout brooks are few and far be- 

 tween and in this dry season yield little sport. But we 

 did not come a-fishing. 



"Ain't there no game?" 



Well, yes. There are crows along the beach, an eagle 

 now and then, a few— a very few — sandpipers. That is all 

 the game in season, except that we have seen some hares. 

 Also deer, grouse and ducks, but our gun has not been 

 uncased. "Then I'd like ter know what yer took it alone 

 fer?" ^ 



Well, to tell the truth, it was mainly, I think, as a de- 

 fensive measure. Enormous sea serpents have of late 

 been rife along this coast from Traverse City northward 

 to Harbor Springs. If one of these monsters should wish 

 to swallow our boat and his time had come, it would 

 never do not to have a gun. 



"If you did not go to fish or shoot, why went ye?" 



