May 30, 1896.] 
FOREST AiSTt) STRfeAM, 
441 
■ ., - ■ 
his own when the time comes for us to go to ours. 
"Last Thursday the climax came, and we surmise that 
he filled some of his dozing moments through the day in 
devising some way of attaining the desired bed; for 
almost immediately upon our returning from the theater 
he, of his own free will and direction, dragged his pad 
from his basket, which was in a closet, then across a 14ft. 
room to our bed, and jumped upon it, tugging the pad 
after him, Then spreading it out the best he could, he 
lay down upon it and went to sleep." 
That Dodgerfield reasoned in this action, there can be 
no doubt, I have already shown that he has two other 
faculties necessary to the perception of a portrait — that of 
form and that of color. That he has the fourth — that of 
the power of the perception of the individual within the 
person — is so apparent that Mr, Dalton thinks him capa- 
ble of receiving impressions, even thoughts, through tel- 
epathy. 
Now, were Mr. Dalton or anyone else to tell me that 
Dodgerfield had known a portrait I would not think the 
statement wild. But such a thing neither Mr. Dalton nor 
anybody else has told me with relation to Dodgerfield. 
It has been told me, however, with relation to another 
dog— Tiger by name— owned by the Rev. Peter Claude 
Creveling, of Cornwall, N. Y. Mr. Creveling writes me 
under date of Jan. 20: 
"My wife does crayon work. Last week she had on 
her board two portraits, each a striking likeness of its 
subject — the one of myself, the other of a friend unknown 
to Tiger. When Mrs. Creveling had about finished her 
work, and after my portrait had been placed in a frame 
and stood on an easel — the other being very near it — 
Tiger was admitted to the room. . (You will please re- 
member that some precaution must be taken before 
admitting him to a studio, as his tail is not conducive to 
the good order of such a place.) Immediately upon see- 
ing his master in crayon, he walked over to the easel and 
endeavored to kiss the face. It was covered by glass. A 
second attempt was made to show his recognition of and 
love for his master. He could only touch the glass. 
This trial was enough to convince him that any further 
attempts to kiss the object of his love would be vain; so 
he lay down in front of the easel, his eyes riveted on the 
covered face thereon, and over his face passed an expres- 
sion of combined disappointment and love that was truly 
pathetic. He would fain have kissed my cheek to tell me 
of his love. After a few moments of mental anxiety, he 
rose, came over to where I was sitting, got on my lap (he 
weighs 1051bs.), kissed the living face, expressed his love, 
and fully showed his great delight that his master still 
existed in tangible form. The subject of the pencil, it is 
quite useless to tell you, was as much pleased as Tiger." 
I am sorry that this paper has grown so long that I 
cannot give some account of Tiger. When a man does a 
great thing, consciously or unconsciously — most great 
things are done unconsciously — much is written about 
him, the poet sings him, the orator eulogizes him. Tiger 
has done a great thing. He has shown that a dog can 
cognize a portrait. He has settled a mooted question in 
comparative psychology. I am proud to be his reporter. 
He has known a portrait. He has had a glimpse of the 
Unseen. May it not be that, he may leap upon the mas- 
ter whom he loves, and subjectively lick his face in 
Eternity? Tiger and his master and all of us are in the 
hands of the Unknowable, yet the Real. 
Charles Josiah Adams. 
29 Lafayette Place, New York. 
NORWEGIAN AND SWEDISH BEAR- 
HOUNDS. 
I have lately read Mr. Alston's interesting article on 
Norwegian elkhounds, and having myself followed the 
chase of b?ars and elk with considerable success during 
twenty years in Scandinavia, I am able to indorse the 
bulk of his remarks. 
* At the close of his article Mr. Alston says, "This dog 
can be instructed to hunt for bears, reindeer," etc. Now, 
this is precisely where, as an old bear hunter, I differ 
with him, for, as regards bear dogs, the experience of a 
very few years sufficed to impress on my mind the unde- 
niable and certain fact that, for all practical purposes of 
the sport of bear hunting, as pursued in Norway and 
►Ssveden with loose and leash hounds, you cannot make a 
bearhound out of that special variety of dog; nor would 
you, by any insinuating instructions or lessons whatso- 
ever, be able to coax, force or teach any individual of this 
class of dog to follow a bear or take his spoor unless he 
pleases. Whenever a young dog develops bear hunting 
propensities you may then proceed to train him in harness 
as soon as you choose, and as soon as you can find a bear 
for him to hunt. But it is an almost absolute impossibility, 
with any degree of certainty, to pick out, say, three, two, 
or even one out of a lot of pups, and decide beforehand 
that you will make a bearhound out of them or him. 
The Vrsus canis of Scandinavia, nascitur non Jit, that is 
my experience, at any rate, and I have killed many bears 
in that country and hunted a vast amount more which I 
was not lucky enough to get shots at. 
This uncertainty about the breeding and subsequent 
training of a reliable bearhound is precisely where the 
difficulty comes in, and is the reason of the survival, rela- 
tively speaking, of such a number of bears in the Scandi- 
navian forests and f jelds, and, I take it, explains the fact 
that bo very few Englishmen pursue the sport of bear 
hunting in those countries. I, of course, refer to still- 
hunting only, with one or perhaps two followers, and one 
dog in harness, or at times two. I myself rarely took 
more than one follower and one of my dogs, except in the 
snow season, when the bear happened to be in a hie, 
when I have taken another companion, I always slipped 
my dogs at a wounded animal. I have traveled many 
hundreds of miles both in Norway and Sweden on the 
search for good bearhounds, 
Out of between forty and fifty elk and bearhounds I 
have possessed or tried at various times, and many more 
I have seen and hunted with during twenty years, I have 
myself only possessed four which I could in any way call 
really first-rate and reliable bearhounds — that is to say, 
which you might use both loose and in leash — and I 
may say I have known about half a dozen others which 
did not belong to me, and I may also state that I have 
hunted the country far and wide many times, and have 
corresponded with many people about them, and did not 
stick at any price in reason for a perfectly reliable and 
well-guaranteed animal. I was once asked by a Swedish 
hunter for a pair of Jemtland elkhounds 6a0kr. ; this was 
at the end of the season too. One was a good and reliable 
Bjornhound as well, for which he asked 400kr. ; for the 
other one, almost the image of him, but a year and a half 
older, he asked 250kr., as he would not take Bjorn spoor, 
but only elk. I have paid various prices, ranging fr jm 
120kr. to 350kr. , which latter was the price I paid for my 
largest and best bearhound. I went some 270 miles out of 
my way to get him, and it took two days' bargaining be- 
fore I could call him mine. This dog came from northern 
Dalecarlia or Vestra Dal. He was a half Finhound with 
half erect ears. I used him for six years for bears, elk and 
reindeer, and you could not have found a better. His 
great failing was his uncertain temper, as he bit me badly 
on two occasions. It is absolutely a sine qua non that 
you possess a bearhound if you wish for any length of 
time to follow the sport of bear hunting successfully in 
Norway, so that is the reason I was at such trouble to pro- 
cure good bearhounds. 
On another occasion I traveled from a district to the 
N.E. of Soelbo Vand in South Trondhjems Amt., where 
I was then bear hunting all through Jemtland, nearly as 
far as Stor Sjosn, a distance of some 390 miles there and 
back (this was before the present railway was made), for 
the express purpose of inspecting some bearhounds I had 
heard about. I inquired all along the road, and saw some 
very fine, handsome-looking animals, but I could get no 
reliable or satisfactory character with any one of those I 
saw. I can speak both Swedish and Norsk, from a long 
residence in both countries, so I had that advantage to 
aid me, and I intended to go as high as 500kr. for a first- 
rate dog, but I did not meet with one there, for sale at 
any rate; and I may state that I had recently paid 200kr. 
for a reputed good bear dog, which would not follow bear 
tracks by any persuasion whatever, and he lost me a 
splendid, fine bear, which I saw and had the chance of 
following, if he would have taken the spoor. My other 
dog, which was a really good bear dog, had run a pine 
splinter into one of his forefeet, so he was laid up for that 
time. I have alBo driven into Sweden from Reraas down 
to Ljusnedal, and along that road which skirts the 
Ljusna Elv, for many miles, to places I do not remem- 
ber the names of, and I bought one in that district 
for 250kr.; and another, a first-rater, of a man 
who lived on the east side of Lake Femmund, in 
Norway; he was just starting for America or would not 
have sold his dog for any money. I gave 150kr. for him, 
he was 4 years old; his master had killed some fifteen or 
twenty elk to him and five bears. I used him constantly 
for seven years and I killed something like thirty-six 
or thirty-seven elk to him, and Bix bears. He was a* per- 
fectly pure-bred Finhound, a beauty to look at, with fine 
erect ears, a powerful chest, strong loins, and with a 
bushy tail curling on the left side, which is the proper 
place for a bear dog's tail to curl; he was of a dark 
brownish-gray color, and stood high on his legs and looked 
just like a wolf. He was of the sweetest disposition I ever 
saw in any dog of my acquaintance, and he knew no fear; 
he always looked you in the face with his intelligent, 
honest-looking eyes. You could take him away from the 
carcass of an elk or bear just killed, and he would never 
attempt to bite you. I have often taken bits of the en- 
trails away from his mouth when we were grallocking or 
cutting up the animal, so that he should not gorge him- 
self, and he never offered to growl, show his teeth, or even 
look the least savage, but would wag his splendid curly 
tail when I put on his harness to lead him away to tie 
him up, and be quite contented. On one occasion this 
dog found me two bears, a full-grown and a half -grown 
one. We had been on the scent for exactly three hours 
and one-quarter, over hill and dale, across swamps and 
bogs, and up and down steep and rocky gorges, without 
seeing fresh tracks of any kind or description, either of 
elk or bear; but without a single mistake he brought me 
as straight as a line to a place where these two bears were 
feeding on berries on a hill slope; this was at the end of 
October, and there was only a little snow in places; he 
took me up within 80yds. before I saw them, as 
there was plenty of cover, so they could not dis- 
cover me. I looked gently and cautiously over a 
large heap of moss-covered rocks, and saw them 
both before me, the nearest about 80yds., the 
other 90 or thereabouts. I immediately gave the dog's 
strap to my man to hold (as I always hunted my dogs my- 
self, and never at any time allowed any stranger to hunt 
them). The dog grasped the situation instantly, and, 
though he was quivering with excitement, and evidently 
realized that the denouement was rapidly and surely ap- 
proaching, made no sign and uttered not the ghost of a 
whine, though he knew as well as if he saw them that 
the bears were only just the other side of the rocks; and, 
as my companions told me afterward, he had his eyes 
fixed steadily on my movements and on the rifle, and his 
nose pointed in the direction of the puffs of wind which 
were coming over the rocks straight from the bears. I 
then raised my rifle (both bears had their left sides turned 
toward me) and fired behind the left shoulder of the big- 
gest. She sprang up for an instant, rolled over backward 
with a ghastly groan and lay kicking, whereupon the 
smaller one — a 3-year-old bear — stood up for a second on 
its hindlegs. In one instant I gave it the contents of my 
second barrel, just as it started to bolt off. My man then 
handed me the two cartridges to load, and I gave the big 
bear a finishing sb ot. In the meantime the dog was frantic 
with excitement, and sprang up on the rocks with the man, 
and we saw the smaller bear kicking about and rolling 
away down the hilly slope. I slipped the dog, who soon 
caught up with the bear, rushed into him and seized him 
by the throat and literally froze to him. I thought the bear 
would certainly have killed him, but he never once let 
go, and they both rolled over and over together down 
that steep slope, some 200ft,, to the bottom. When at 
last I got to them I found him bathed in the blood of the 
bear, they were rolling and struggling and fighting, and 
altogether made such a fiendish noise that I think I never 
heard the like of it before. I could not get a sure shot at 
the bear, as I was afraid of hitting the dog. So my man 
cut a thick club, while I rammed my rifle barrels right 
into the bear's mouth and down his throat, so that he 
could not get at the dog 1 5 bite him, for he never let go 
once, and there was a hola on the left side of the bear's , 
throat big enough to put a dumpling inside, at least a 
small dumpling, which was the effect of a .500 bullet 
from my Express. It just missed the vertebras of the 
neck, in which case he would have been a dead bear. 
Well, the man soon got the club ready, and banged on to 
the back of the bear's head and stunned him, whereupon 
I gave him another shot and killed him. I never saw 
such a sight as the dog was; he was covered with blood 
from head to tail, but he was not bitten or hurt in the 
least, and had not so much as a scratch on his skin, 
though the bear had hugged him pretty tight all the way 
down the hill slope. Probably, if I had not been there 
in time, he would have squeezed the breath out of the 
dog before he himself gave up the ghost, though he must 
soon have caved in from loss of blood, owing to the fear- 
ful wound in his neck. 
When I stood and watched the two rolling over and 
over together and bounding down that hill slope on their 
mad career, I thought the bear would have torn my dog 
into strips, but he was a very powerful dog of the kind, 
and the bear was only a young one after all. Now that is 
the kind of dog I call a good bearhound, and one that is 
worth any money for bear hunting; but I assert that you 
could no more pick out a young pup and train or instruct 
him to turn out like that than you could teach a pig to 
speak Arabic. He was in every way one of the pluckiest, 
best tempered, most intelligent, keenest, best-nosed dogs 
of the kind I ever came across in all my experience, and 
was as good a loose and leash hound for elk as he was for 
bears. 
There is no particular breed from which to train a bear- 
hound, for it all rests with the dog himself whether he 
possesses the courage, energy and peculiar instinct re- 
quired to develop him into a bearhound. Now and then 
it happens that a common mongrel cattle dog, or gaard- 
hund, as they are called, will develop into an excellent 
bearhound and put to shame some of those fine, showy- 
looking so-called elkhounds you meet with in Jemtland, 
I possessed such a one some years ago, he was half Fin- 
hound and half mongrel cattle dog. I bought him of a 
hunter who lived on the upper waters of Namsen, some- 
where near Nams Vand. He was a good-sized dog, black 
and tan, with a thick furry coat and large bushy tail, 
curling on t^e left side. He wan a first-rate dog for bears, 
elk, reindeer and red-deer, for I used him for all these, 
and killed four bears and several elk, reindeer and red-deer 
to him. I paid 130kr. for him, but he was 7 years old 
when I bought him, and I only got four years', or I may 
say nearly five seasons' work out of him, for he got too 
old at the end of his last season. This dog was decidedly 
keener on bear than any other spoor, and he never showed 
the least fear of bears at any time. On one occasion 
he found me a bear in a hie some time at the end of 
November. There was some difficulty in getting about, 
owing to a foot or more of snow in the woods. He 
scratched away the snow from the mouth of the hie and 
woke up the sleeping beauty inside, which, however, 
never attempted to hurt him, but kept up a continuous 
growling and snarling, whereupon the dog quickly backed 
out and stood on the snow at the outside, barking furi- 
ously and lashing his tail from side to side. He showed 
no more fear of him than if he had been a pig in a sty. 
I could not get the dog to come away, anyhow, so crept 
cautiously up, holding my rifle at full cock in my left 
hand, while with my right I reached round and grabbed 
hold of the dog's tail and swung him down a steep slope 
into the snow below. Then the bear sprang out, and his 
funeral was held shortly afterward. This was a rare all- 
round dog, as good as they are born, for you cannot make 
them. It is a curious fact connected with good bear- 
hounds that they almost invariably curl their tails on the 
left side, I have repeatedly noticed this fact, which is 
probably only a coincidence, but I can truly assert that 
every good bearhound I possessed or used during a twenty 
years' hunting experience in Norway and Sweden curled 
his tail on that side, and, moreover, I never happened to 
hunt with any dog of the kind which curled his tail on 
the right side that was any good for bears, though at 
the same time they were excellent elk and reindeer 
dogs. I find it impossible in any way to account for 
such a singular fact, but it is well known to all bear 
hunters, and my attention was drawn to it when I bought 
my first bearhound. 
I always hunted my own dogs myself, after studying 
the ways of hunting and the peculiarities of that class of 
dog, which I learned after a three years' apprenticeship 
with professional hunters who well understood these dogs 
and their business. After which I felt competent to hunt 
my dogs myself, and find my way about any forest with- 
out guidance from any other. I could give many ex- 
amples of the extraordinary long distances some of my 
dogs have winded elk or bears. One cold and snowy day 
in mid October my dog took me for more than three and 
a half hours, straight up wind as near as possible, over 
and down a high hill, and up and across a considerable 
extent of high f jeld. There were about 6 or bin. of enow 
on the ground, and I knew the sport was not there, 
though at times he burrowed his nose in the snow to see 
if the scent which puzzled him lay there underneath the 
snow. But he still kept on and never hesitated or halted 
except to spring on a rock to obtain a better wind, after 
which he would dash forward, pulling me along with 
him, then, proceed as hard as I could let him go, with his 
head and nose high up in the air. 
My man and I were both first-rate walkers, and never 
once stopped to rest, so I may say without exaggeration 
we covered at least two and a half miles of actual dis- 
tance in each hour; this would give seven and a half 
miles for the entire distance in a straight line from the 
place where the dog first got the scent to the spot where 
we came on the elk. There were five of them, and 
they were browsing on mountain ash bark, in a 
deep valley below us, when we first caught sight of 
them at 8u0yds. off. How the dog could get the wind 
from them over that distance, and with so many obstacles 
between, I know not and cannot explain, though I calcu- 
late I have been running and walking on the spoor of some 
700 or 800 elk with my dogs at various times. We never 
came across the ghost of a track of bear or elk until we 
came direct on those five elk. Most of the snow had 
fallen the day before, so there was certainly no fresh spoor 
under the snow, which sometimes a good dog will take 
as well as if there was no snow at all. Some people may 
disbelieve all this afid say it is impossible or think I am 
romancing, but nevertheless it happened as narrated, and 
I could mention many more instances even mere marvel- 
ous of the scent-following qualities of a first-class hound 
of this species. The animal just referred to would scent 
bears at equally long distances on certain occasions and 
under certain conditions of atmosphere. 
It is absolutely necessary to understand" your dog and 
have full confidence in him before you allow him to lead 
you such a long distance, or you might find yourself on a 
fruitless chase. I think it is desirable to mention all this 
