208 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



\0z<s. 4, 1888. 



SOME MORE BEAR STORIES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Speaking of bears in Oxford county, Maine, reminds 

 me of the daring of a country boy who once killed a 

 good specimen with a shotgun. He lived in the town of 

 Rumford. The incident was some thirty years ago, and 

 as the gentleman is now living, and can vouch for the 

 statement, I may be excused for giving his name. It 

 was Charley Martin, and he tended the rope ferry across 

 the river at Rumford, the ferry which lias been looked 

 upou as a novelty by a great many sportsmen who have 

 visited Richardson Lake via the And over route. Per- 

 haps some of those who read the Forest and Stream 

 may have seen Charley, Well, the bear shooting created 

 a good deal of excitement at the time and people rode in 

 for miles to see the beast. Charley was quite a hero but 

 the shooting was none the less daring and dangerous. 

 Charley's parents lived down the river road a mile or 

 more below the litttle village of Rumford Point. Be- 

 hind their dwelling there is a very steep hill. It would 

 be called a mountain in a less mountainous part of the 

 country, It was claimed at that time that bears came 

 down that hill in times gone by, and across the intervale 

 in front of the house, for the purpose of crossing to An- 

 droscoggin, for there the river is very narrow. How 

 true this may be it is not certain, but at all events this 

 bear came down the mountain, but he did not cross the 

 river. Charley saw the great black fellow lumbering 

 down the hill, and somehow he conceived the idea that 

 he would go through a pair of bars— they call them a 

 pair of bars in that part of the country. The bars were 

 an opening in a stump fence not far from the botv-e 

 Charley rau to the house for the gun, keeping beh'nd the 

 fence as much as possible. The rest of the family were 

 all away from home at the moment, lie Look the gun, but 

 there was no time to reload it. It had been loaded with 

 shot for crows a few days before. The young fellow 

 crawled with the gun in his hands to the opening in the 

 old stump fence. As he crawled he took the precaution 

 to roll a loose bill into the gun, which, country boy like, 

 lie happened to have in his pocket. He reached the open- 

 ing none too soon, and he had calculated correctly in 

 thinking that the bear would crawl through the bars on 

 his way to the river. The courageous little fellow lay 

 with the gun to his shouder, cocked, and his body com- 

 pletely hidden by one of the great pine stumps of the 

 fence. He had to wait but a moment before the old 

 bear put his forefeet and forward part of his body 

 through between the bars. The bear was not more than 

 six feet from the boy. and somehow he had not seen or 

 scented him. In Charley's own worus, "When 1 »aw 

 the spot under the old fellow's foreleg, I pointed the old 

 gun at it and pulled! The old bear tumbled over dead. 

 I jumped up and ran for the hous*-. I never thought 

 till afterward what would have happened to me if ihe 

 old guu had missed fire. I only thought of sho ting a 

 bear." The beast was very thin and poor; it w;ts in the 

 month of May. It only weighed some 250 pounds, but 

 the frame was large enough to have weighed 4U0 or 500 

 in the fall. 



But this is a story of a light bear for Oxford county. 

 One was killed in the same county last season of consid- 

 erably more weight. It seems that a couple of men 

 somewhere in the town of Albany cut down a "piece of 

 trees'* the year before, and, getting what the forest de- 

 stroyers term "a good burn," they decided to plant the 

 "piece" to com. They planted the corn in the spring, 

 and after cutting out the weeds in June, they did not go 

 near it again till late in the season. It was some distance 

 into the woods, and one day they decided to visit their 

 cornfield. They started off with an axe, and a gun to kill 

 partridges in case they came across any. They reached 

 the cornfield. There had been something of a growth of 

 corn there, but, oh! what havoc! Something had torn it 

 down, trampled on it, and eaten off all the ears! It did 

 not take long to find out the cause. They soon started an 

 old bear from his siesta under the shade of the fence. A 

 b( ar, bur, oh, so fat! He could run no more than Bar- 

 num's hippopotamus. Indeed, he actually fell down and 

 whined when he saw that he was to be hard pushed by 

 the men. The one with the gun was about to shoot him, 

 when the o'her suggested that it would be something to 

 kill a bear with au axe, and accordingly they approached 

 the beast and beat out his brains with the axe. Ht- 

 weighed all that a bear should weigh that has had a field 

 of sweet new corn to feed in to his satisfaction. Such is 

 the story that I hear. I cannot vouch for the truth of it, 

 a,s I can for the light bear shot by the boy. But it is cer- 

 tain that bears are really plenty in Maine, and there is a 

 chance for the sportsman of courage there. But the 

 coward, who must have a helpless deer driven by dogs 

 inlo the water for him to shoot, had better not try bear 

 hunting in Maine. The bear might show fight 



Special. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



While Martin Murphy and Michael Fitzgibon were fish- 

 n Bass Lake (a beautiful sheet of water in Hastings 

 county, Ont.,) they were surprised at seeing a large black 

 bear s wiuiming in close proximity to their canoe. Having 

 no other arms than their fishing poles, which, however, 

 differed very much in weight from these lods generally 

 used, they attacked brain vigorously, belaboring him 

 over the head until he was apparently either dead or 

 "knocked out." They then proceeded to drag him into 

 the canoe, which was no easy task, even though the boat 

 was much larger than usual. The work was nearly com- 

 pleted when bruin himself came to their assistance and 

 pulled himself into the canoe. In the panic which fol- 

 lowed the canoe upset, precipitating all three into the 

 water. Fitzgibon had had enough of the sport and started 

 swimming for the shore, but Murphy climbed on one end 

 of the upset canoe, the bear immediately taking posses- 

 sion of the other side. Murphy shook him off, but bruin 

 stayeu with him and climbed up again. This operation 

 was repeated three times, and Murphy becoming tired 

 and the bear seeming as fresh as at the beginning of the 

 fighr. the man started for the shore after his companion. 

 Mr. Robert Powers, however, heard the hubbub on the 

 lake, and supposing it an ordinary case of an up>et came 

 out to Murphy in his canoe without any firearms. On 

 seeing the true state of affairs he returned quickly and 

 borrowed a rifle from Wm. Moore, a lumberman, who 

 was luckily at hand, and killed the bear, which all tfe 

 time stuck to the canoe. The animal was a large one 

 weighing nearly 2501bs, The body was not fat and the 

 hair very inferior in quality. W R. W. 



ONE GOOD MAN GONE WRONG. 



IN the last issue of Forest and Stream, under the cap- 

 tion of "Two Good Men Gone Wrong," reference was 

 made to a certain fish story, located on the grounds of 

 the "Kankakee Cattle Co.," and vouched for by two re- 

 spected sportsmen of this city, to wit, Mr. A. Montgomery 

 Ward and Mr. E. C. Cook.* The storv, as told by both 

 these gentlemen, with a singular fidelity to a common 

 standard, stated that fully one hundied fine pickerel had 

 jumped into then- boat as they were paddling along a 

 channel of the marsh. There recountal was met with 

 great surprise and regret by their friends, as both gen- 

 tlemen have always borne a high reputation in this city 

 for allegiance to scrupulous exactness of statement; there 

 was some rejoicing, therefore, when, owing to a failure 

 to agree upon a certain other point, these gentlemen dis- 

 agreed as to the details of the fish story, and allowed its 

 otherwise finished and monumental character to be as- 

 sailed with the suspicion of a doubt. 

 The point of disagreement was the question whether it 



ing, wherein he is represented as hardly able to speak for 

 himself, it is hoped that he will eventually rise and ex- 

 plain. He can, perhaps, do this better than the arti.-t, 

 and better than Forest and Stream, for it would seem 

 that, so far from a mere intention he has actually car- 

 ried out his evident determination to "get to the bottom 

 of things." H. 

 Chicago. 



DROP OF STOCK. 



(^HARLESTOWN, N. H.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 J I received a day or two since a number of Forest 

 and Stream of July 21, 1887, marked on the wiapper 

 ",-ample copy," for which I am much obliged to some- 

 body. It was a good number, although I do not think 

 any better than the one for Sept. 20, 1888, which I have 

 just finished reading, and if it came from your office you 

 must have "a new hand at the bellows," in the clerical 

 department to think that I needed a specimen number of 

 my old friend and favorite. However, that was not what 



was Mr. Ward or Mr. Cook who took the header of out 

 the boat on this same shooting trip. Mr. Cook says it was 

 Mr. Ward who took the header, and Mr. Ward says it was 

 Mr. Cook. 



In all such matters as these, it is the aim of Forest 

 and Stream to get to the bottom. By reference to the 

 above engravings it may be seen that it was also the 

 a im of the gentleman who took the header to get to the 

 bottom. The originals of the pictures were secured by a 



I took up my pen for, which was to f oily indorse the letter 

 of "Wells" in the last number just referred to, on the 

 drop of gun stocks. 



"Wells" is perfectly correct, and a drop of 3 to 3^in. 

 will suit the average shooter far better than a less one, so 

 far as my knowledge of guns and anatomy goes. I hnve 

 an old English double 12-gauge, which I have used for 

 forty years, and although I have killed what would be a 

 "pile of game" with it, if it were all together, I have 



Forest and Stream artist, who was concealed in the 

 grass near by, and who is not visible in the picture. As 

 may be supposed, the artist, being entirely unprejudiced 

 on either side, and anxicus, like the submerged gentle- 

 man, only to get to the bottom, would state things 

 exactly as they occured. 



While the artist is not personally acquainted with 

 either of the gentlemen in question" he is told that he 

 has fallen upon a very palpable likeness in his portrait 

 of each. He is also assured that the gentleman who in 

 the first cut is shown standing erect in the graceful pic- 

 turesque attitude, is none other than Mr. Cook, and that 

 the gentleman who in both cuts is shown as comfort- 

 ably seated in his boat is nobody but Mr. Ward. The 

 artist does not know as to that, his sole business being to 

 be true to detail; but if such should' indeed be the case, 

 there would seem to be little room left to doubt that it 

 was Mr. Cook who took the header, and Mr. Ward who 

 did not. Common report, also, would seem to bear out 

 this supposition. For instance, Mr. Cook is mentioned 

 as a man of methodical habits and a painstaking dispo- 

 sition. The gentleman in the second cut displays such 

 traits in the careful manner in which he has inserted 

 his gun muzzle downward into the mud. Mr. Cook's 

 well-known humane habit* are also shown by the gener- 

 ous manner in which he offers a part of the bottom of 

 his boot to hU dog, who seems to be laboring under fear 

 of a strong order. Mr. Cook, as may be seen by refer- 

 ence to the engraving, is of a retiring disposition. He 

 has, in fact, retired entirely from view. If the artist has 

 done him any injustice in the details of the second draw- 



missed another by shooting over, and the drop of stock is 

 2fin. I laid it aside twenty years ago for that reason 

 and took to a more crooked stock, with which I could get 

 a quicker and surer aim. 



1 keep the old gun for the good it has done, muzzle- 

 loader though it be, for I do not expect to ever use it 

 much more, and it is a deadly weapon, when I can get 

 time to screw my head down so as to look straight along 

 the barrels/ 



I have seen a flock of plover drop a foot in their flight 

 as the shot whistled over them, when I have fired a quick 

 shot at a flock coming by me from the rear when shoot- 

 ing on Plum Island, and many a gray squirrel have I 

 brought down, without a shot mark except in the head 

 and throat, when I have fired as they stopped for a second 

 in a rapid race up a tree. The most perfectly fitting gun 

 I ever shot — and I have shot a good many — was a 14- 

 gauge, 3-Jin. drop; and were I to order a new gun to dav I 

 should go back to these dimensions. I never believed* in 

 what Frank Forester called "cannon" for ordinary game 

 shooting, neither do I believe a 16 or 20 gauge large 

 enough for average game, including ruffed grouse, ducks 

 and gray squirrels, for I think a gray s-quirrel game, 

 although Frank Forester did not, and! know "Iron Ram- 

 rod" will support me in saying that it requires some wood- 

 craft, as well as some "gumption," to successfully cir- 

 cumvent the wary and nimble climbers; and what makes 

 a better dinner than a squirrel stew or pie? 



With such a gun as I have just mentioned, 28in. bar- 

 rels and not over 71bs. in weight, with 2idrs. of powder 

 and an ounce of shot, a cardboard and a iin. felt wad on 



