Feb. 8, 1896.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
118 
Aodident of the Field. 
During the day Mr. Money met with one of the acci- 
dents of the field which may happen at any time in the 
riding necessitated on the bear chase. A dry stalk of cane 
I flew back and struck him full on the ball of the eye with 
| much force. He said that at the instant he was sure the 
eyeball was broken quite open, and put up his hand ex- 
pecting to feel it on his face. He said nothing, but a few 
I moments afterward I saw him unsteady in bis saddle and 
I fairly faint with the excruciating pain. I found by roll- 
| ing back the lid that there was a deep red, bloodshot spot 
,' on the eyeball where the cane had struck, and it was an 
awful eye the plucky fellow had. But I could assure him 
i the eyeball was not ruined, which seemed to please him a 
, lot. I had no notion he would see much with either eye 
I for several days, but to the surprise of all he got over it so 
quickly that he could ride the next day, though his eye 
| was inflamed for a long time. 
A Pointing Bear Dog. 
One odd thing I noticed that day, and one which per- 
haps has rarely been recorded on a bear hunt before. We 
had one little nondescript dog in the pack which was 
[called "New York," which looked a great deal like a 
: pointer, and which, no doubt, had pointer blood. While 
Iwe were riding along a path some of the dogs began to 
iBniff about and scatter into the cane. I distinctly saw 
[this dog come up, sniff at the edge of the cane, where a 
jtree had fallen, and then for an instant stretch out into an 
[unmistakable point, as a bird dog would on birds. A 
Ipjoment later all the pack were off together on a trail 
|which we took to be that of the bear we afterward lost. 
II have heard of dogs pointing deer, but never before saw 
I one point bears. I feel quite sure there was no mistake 
| about this, and that the dog actually pointed the trail. 
By the time we got into camp that night we found that 
mine of the dogs had come in. One by one they came 
straggling in throughout the night, until by morning 
I there were only a few missing. By noon only two were 
put, but one of these was Scott, which Capt. Bobo consid- 
ered his best bear dog. What became of Scott we never 
Knew, nor did we ever find Fly, another fine bear dog, 
Iwhich with four others had gone one day before into this 
■same Hurricane and never been heard from again. The 
uolored boys shook their heads mysteriously, and Col. Bob 
■Edwards's Sam plainly allowed " DatHarricane sho' mus' 
►be harnted by somethin' er other." 
The Dogs of Chase and Dogs of War. 
L On Saturday we all lay in camp except Capt. Bobo and 
IFincher, his son, who put in the day riding far over to 
the east, trying to find some of the lost dogs. Capt. Bobo 
told one of his servants, Bill, to ride over toward the 
Hurricane and blow there for the dogs, which we were 
nil satisfied by this time had been either baying or fight- 
Bag until late in the night. Bill was very philosophical 
febout starting out, but developed a bad case of stomach 
•trouble which kept him in camp until nearly noon, by 
•which time six more dogs had come in by themselves, 
[without his help. This I should call good generalship on 
Bill's part. The rest of us had a good time resting about 
fche camp. Col. Dick Payne and Capt. Boney Leavell 
bad the war fought from the first Manassas up to Shiloh 
|by the time Jim, the cook, showed his calmly smiling 
(face at the shanty door and beat his lardcan gong for 
lunch. It was always a hardship for these two veterans 
bo break away from the war to stop and eat, and it 
■required persuasion to get them from astride the bench 
fcehich made their meeting ground. Moreover, there was 
Hanger for them in leaving their rear unprotected. All 
Itheir war maps were drawn in the ashes around the fire, 
fend it was very trying for them to come back from lunch 
J— even such a lunch as Jim and his assistant could get up 
i— and find the battlefield of Shiloh or Manassas knocked 
Into a cocked hat by the swipe of a bear dog's hind leg. 
Eliis always necessitated the beginning of the war all over 
fegain. 
Ghosts, Spirits and Conjurings. 
Mr. Foster, I found, could sleep as well as ever, and 
hat is saying a great deal. He averaged about twenty 
lours a day, but when awake was cheerful and amusing 
is ever. He showed us how to carry a shirt cavalryman 
rashion, folding it so it would all go into one sleeve and 
IB snug -and tight. Then he started in on Col. Bob 
Sdwards's boy, Sam, and kept that poor fellow guessing 
for the rest of the trip. Sam is one of those who believe 
n ghosts and "speh'its," and he and Mr. Foster had great 
lames discussing these matters, Mr. Foster professing a 
iimilar belief . Sam told of a spirit cat which had tried 
|p rub against his legs one night as he was going home 
rrom church. 
I "I done tried to stomp it, but it wasn't thah," said Sam 
rThen I pulled my pistol an' tried to shoot it, but the 
.lullet done pass right th'oo it an' ain't hurt it none. Then I 
parts an' runs. The fellah I wuz with he hollahs out 
tWhah yo' at. Sam?' 'Ovah hyah by Col. Wah'nah's place ' 
fays I. Bimeby he hollahs out again, 4 Whah yo' is now' 
Bam?' 'Ovah hyah by Col. Johnson's plantation,' I says' 
Rhen he hollahs out again after awhile, 'Yo' Sam whah 
to at now, Sam?' Den I says, 'Ovah hyah at Cun'nel Ed- 
Ivards place.' Praise Gord, dat wuz about four miles. Sol 
lone run in de house and git in de bed an' covah up mer 
lead. I sho' was scared. I looken fo' dat cat to come into 
ny room any minnit all dat night. I alius 'lowed dat cat 
puz a speh'it. I ain't nevah seen ve'ly many speh'its but 
• done see lots of folks what has!"' 
I To all of which Mr. Foster listened with the greatest 
feravity and sympathy. But his masterpiece of work was 
»lth old Ben, who was fond of calling himself "a olc 
spei'unced bah' huntah." By dint of inquiry among the 
>thers, Mr. Foster got a knowledge of the names of some 
hi Ben's best dogs, which once made up a pack which has 
■low been dead for twenty years or more, but about which 
saul was always talking. Getting him to one side one 
lay, Mr. Foster carelessly began to tell Ben about his old 
>ack, describing the color and peculiarity of several dogs 
Its well as if he had known them himself, though he had 
fjever seen or heard of Ben or his dogs before this trip 
Ken looked at him sharply for a while and then moved 
ftway and would not come near him again all day He 
fvould go off by himself and sit on a log and hang his 
pead m thought. At last he came up to Mr. Foster with 
II question, "Wha' kine er dog you sayin' my oleRing dojr 
lie wah? 
I "Oh, old Ring," said Mr. Foster, who had been posted 
pell on Ring in advance,. "Why, don't you rem em b 
Ring? He wouldn't ever let anybody tie a rope around his 
neck." 
"Dat him— dat him sho'!" exclaimed Ben; but suddenly 
recollecting that Mr. Foster had no earthly right to know 
anything about old Ring, his face dropped and again he 
moved away. He told the other servants that Mr. Foster 
was a "conjurer," and the next day Ben left the camp, 
never having anything to do with Mr. Foster afterward. 
The Negro as Bear Hunter. 
Most of the negroes of that region we found simple, 
ignorant and not of courageous disposition. For instance, 
Hopson, the driver who brought me into camp from the 
railroad, was scared about to death at the thought of 
going back through the woods alone with a big piece of 
fresh meat in his wagon. He was sure that the bears 
would catch and eat him, and Capt. Leavell added to his 
disquietude by gravely assuring him that a panther would 
be sure to follow him and jump on to him in the darkest 
place on the road, as panthers preferred to eat black men 
above all other delicacies, Mr. Foster's friend Sam, who 
had such an experience with the spirit cat, recounted how 
once he and several other negro boys were out hunting 
coons one night, when they heard a panther scream near 
by. From all that could be learned the whole party ran 
home, about five miles, without stopping to take breath. 
Sam declared he could hear "dat critter comin' right 
clost up on top his heels, a-grittin' his teeths every jump 
he make." Sam was a very frank and fearless sort of 
coward. On the other hand, nearly all the servants about 
the camp, including all of Capt. Bobo's, were old and ex- 
cellent bear hunters, as good as any white man could be, 
and these had no fear whatever of the wild creatures with 
which much experience had made them familiar. Bill, 
Tom, Pete and big Sam were Capt. Bobo's right-hand 
assistants all the time in his bear hunts, and owned some 
of the best dogs in the pack. Every one of them knew 
each dog in the pack, and could describe intelligibly to 
the others the performances of "that ring tail fise dog," 
"that stag-terrier," "that crooked tail dog," "that little 
foxhound with the bad ear," "that brindle dog of so-and- 
so's," etc., etc. Moreover, every one of these men knew 
where every one of the dogs came from and whom it be- 
longed to, and what it was worth in the chase; and still 
more remarkable to the stranger, each of them, in com- 
mon with the gentlemen who directed the hunt, could 
always tell the voice of each dog heard in the distance, 
and tell what that particular dog was up to at that par- 
ticular time. It is a wild, free life these bear hunting 
negroes have led down in the Delta— better than they could 
have in any other country — and exciting enough are some 
of the experiences they have had out with the Bobo pack. 
More than once Capt. Bobo has taken a notion he wanted 
to take a bear home alive, and this he has done, roping 
and leading him behind a wagon, albeit with his reluctant 
consent thereto. Once Bobo caught and tied a live wild 
panther, and trussing his feet together took it into camp 
slung on a pole carried by two men over their shoulders. 
All of these exploits were seen and shared in very often 
by these trusty colored hunters, so that it is natural to 
find them well posted on the habits of their game. Thus 
Bill told me how a bear carrifs off a fat hog. "He just 
grabs the hog by the neck," he said, "and straddles over 
him, with the hog between his fore legs, an' he shore 
make that ar hog walk fast." Sometimes a bear will bite 
a big piece out of a hog and leave him alive. A panther 
is usually supposed to sling its quarry over its shoulder, as 
the lion and tiger are said to do, but these hunters all said 
that when a panther kills a deer it does not carry it in 
that way, but drags it by the neck. Two panthers will 
often operate together in this way, one taking hold on 
each side of the deer's neck, and they will go through the 
thickest cane at a great pace in that way. 
The BiggestlCoward on Earth. 
There is no doubt that .we were in a country and among 
mpn where the hunting of the black bear is about as old 
and oft-told a story as anywhere on this continent, yet I 
could not learn of any great danger ever attaching to this 
sort of hunting. I heard of the killing of many hun- 
dreds of these bears, possibly of actually thousands, but 
I could not learn of any bear that ever showed any fight 
except one she bear which Bobo once said came at him 
with her ears back. The black bear will fight dogs but 
these seem to prevent all thought of fighting man, from 
whom the bear always endeavors to escape as fast as pos- 
sible. The unanimous verdict of all these many bear 
hunters was that the black bear is the biggest coward on 
earth for his size, unless it be the alligator. 
This cowardliness robs the sport of hunting these bears 
of much of its zest, and really I do not think the rifle is 
the proper weapon to use in their pursuit, as Bobo often 
proves by going m and killing one with the knife. Noel 
Money told us that in India they were accustomed to use 
some heavy seize dogs in hunting bears, which nailed the 
bear always by the head. The bear was then always 
killed with the knife. He thought that by using some of 
these heavy dogs, slipping them onlv when the game was 
at bay, the black bear of the canebrakes could be killed 
in a similar way. I should be disposed to think that a 
short spear would be a very practical weapon for killing 
the bear, at least m some chases where the do^s had the 
bear well stood up. The only trouble in its use would be 
m the habit of the bear of moving on with the pack as 
soon as the hunter appears in sight. The custom is to 
shoot the bear as quickly as possible in order to save the 
dogs, which rush in as soon as they see a man come 
on the scene. With these light dogs, such as make up 
most^of the pack now, the use of knife or spear 
would no doubt mean the loss of a great many more dogs, 
though it might afford more fun; and as so many dogs 
are kil ed as it is, it is not likely that the bear hunters of 
the Delta will change from their present customs. None 
the less, they all have a great contempt for the bear, and 
can not understand why some people will believe the 
stories they read in the papers about desperate fights in 
which the black bear figures so largely. Capt. Bonev 
Leavell, like all his friends, had been a bear hunter all his 
life, as had been his father before him. He has to-dav 
on his plantation an old white-haired negro servant, who 
is known to everybody as Uncle Joe (about whom we 
shall hear more later on). Uncle Joe is one of the old- 
time darkies, and has never changed his ways, and has a 
his life lived on the Leavell plantation, with no wish 
leave for other scenes. Uncle Joe was the favor 
servant of ' ? 01e Marse Leavell," as he is now of "Ma 
Boney," and can tell many a tale of bear hunting with 
both of them. He has killed a great many bears himself, 
and understands the sport thoroughly. It was one of 
the treats of the trip to see Uncle Joe quietly smiling 
while Capt. Leavell told of a certain bear hunt in which 
they both figured not so very long ago. It seems they got 
up with this bear when they had no weapon between 
them but one knife, which belonged to Joe, and which he 
prized very highly. Capt. . Leavell bears a lasting 
reminder of the war in an injured member of his body, 
having lost a foot and ankle from a gunshot wound re- 
ceived in one of the closing battles of the war; he could 
not, therefore, get about very well with his wooden limb 
and the cane, and when it is added that the only weapon 
he could find was a stout club, it may be surmised that he 
and Joe were not very well equipped for a bear fight. 
None the less, they sailed in with club and knife and had 
a very interesting time of it for awhile. Capt. Leavell 
would smash the bear over the head and knock it down, 
and Joe would try to do business with his knife. The 
main concern of the bear was to get away, and this at 
last it did, unfortunately, just at the time that Joe had 
struck it with the knife, so that in its flight it carried that 
weapon with it.* "Hit him! Marse Boney, hit him!" 
called out Joe. "He's got my knife! Hit him!" Capt. 
Leavell, much convulsed with laughter at Joe's concern 
over his knife, did his best to get the bear, but could not 
do so, and Joe ran after it and grabbed it by the long hair 
of the back, and so at length by perseverance stopped it 
long enough to recover his much valued knife and finish 
up the bear. 
The Bear Pack in Camp. 
With many bear stories and the discussing of much bear 
lore we put in most of the time on Saturday while we 
were resting. We were visited that day by Mr. L. N. 
Kimerer, an owner of some timber lands adjoining us on 
the north, who rode down with a Mr. Ristenberger, of 
Indiana, who was visiting at his camp for a time. Like 
everybody else, these gentlemen were anxious to kill a 
bear, and were disappointed that no chase was on for the 
day. 
On Saturday night we had a hard rain, which persisted 
over Sunday, so that everything was very wet and dis- 
agreeable about camp. The dogs, which were now much 
disabled by continuous fighting, lay around in different 
stages of discomfort. Some of the dogs were now begin- 
ning to grow very thin and sorry-looking from their 
wounds, especially those which had been bitten through 
the back by the bears. It seems that a dog bitten in the 
small of the back is unable to lie down, or to get up if he 
does lie down. We saw several of them which stood 
around with heads drooping and ears depressed, the pic- 
ture of misery, actually asleep, for a moment or so at a 
time at least, standing up. They would waver and* stag- 
ger as the drowsy influence overcame them; then there 
would be a swaying of the body and a sharp cry of pain 
as the wrenched back felt the sore muscles used, and then 
the poor creature would move slowly away a yard or so 
and go through it all over again — almost dead from lack 
of sleep. It was sad to see the consequences upon the 
dogs of the sport which had so little danger to the human 
participants. 
In wet weather the dogs are more uncomfortable, and 
fight each other more cheerfully; so we had something at 
least to do in trying to preserve the peace and dignity of 
the camp. One black foxhound created considerable 
amusement in the evening, after most of the party had 
gone to bed, by sneaking into the sleeping room and steal- 
ing a whole cheese and the biggest part of a cake which 
the cook had placed on the refreshment table in the main 
room. He was driven out before the loss was known, but 
came back again persistently, and no one could tell what 
he was after, unless it was a glass of whisky, which was 
all he had left on the table. 
The Party Diminishing. 
The rain rather put a wet blanket on the party and on 
Monday morning some of the gentlemen were obliged to 
return home, among these Mr. Felix Payne, Capt. 
Leavell and Mr. Dunn. When Felix Payne rode away 
that morning we all bade him good-bye with regret, though 
his absence was to be but for a few days, as he said he 
only wished to be gone long enough to arrange some 
business matters. But alas! that was the last time most 
of our party ever saw Felix Payne. His untimely illness 
and death, which I have earlier chronicled, took place all 
too soon after his departure. 
It was still raining on Monday, or at least enough to 
stop hunting, so the party did not go out at all, this making 
three days since the dogs had been out. On Tuesday 
morning the weather broke bright and fair, and the only 
thing to mar the prospective pleasure of the day was the 
fact that Mr. Foster and Col. Dick Payne were obliged to 
end their stay and return home. We put them across the 
river to their wagon in the early morning and said good- 
bye to them with reluctance, one may be sure, for two 
such gentlemen leave a vacancy not to be filled when 
they leave a camp. Neither of these gentlemen had his 
shot at a bear, which was a matter of regret to all the 
others of the party, though all knew that the luck of the 
chase was very fickle and sometimes refused to select the 
fittest for its favors. But both our friends went away 
declaring themselves delighted with the experience in 
camp. With them went the head cook Jim and also Sam, 
the colored boy, who lived out near the railroad. This 
subtraction from the ranks left the party small, though 
warlike. Mr. Foster quit-claimed to me a little rat-tailed 
roan swamp pony which he had been riding and which 
he said had belonged to some darky who lived somewhere 
or other, and would some day or other appear on the 
scene and collect the rent on said pony. This left me in 
a very good frame of mind, for I did not like to ride a 
horse belonging to a friend who would thereby be set 
afoot. 
On Tuesday we went afield again, and this time we got 
something in regard to which we must defer reference 
till the next issue of Forest and Stream. E. Hough. 
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