AtTG. 26, 1899.1 
FOREST AND STREAM 
165 
feet. I grabbed him by the nape of the neck and back and 
he turned Hke a flash and began scratching Hke a bag full 
of cats. 
"1 sang out to the boy to hurry up and come down or 
t'd have no flesh left on my hands, and when he got down 
I had him tie the forward feet with a piece of string and 
belp me get the little devil under control. 
"All this time the cub was making the most unearthly 
noise, and I thought to myself if there were any old 
bears around I should have company. , I kept the cub till 
he was six months old and then sold him. When I got 
him he weighed about 5lbs., and when I sold him he 
weighed 50. 
"I had put the old she bear in for bait, and about a 
week after I got the cubs I went back to the trap and 
caught another old one, and a little after that I got my 
fourth grown bear in the trap where I had' knocked the 
bear over with a club. 
"Bear meat makes as good a bait as anything. The 
secret in catching bears is to select the right spot for 
setting the trap. One man may set a trap in one place and 
never catch anj^thing, and another man may go fifty or a 
hundred rods to one side and get a bear right off the first 
thing. 
"Some bears are mighty smart. I tried three years for 
one, and had the blacksmith make me a special heavy trap. 
He was a monstrous big bear, and you could follow him 
through the woods by his track just as easy as you could 
an axe. I put out a dead horse weighing i,ooolbs. for him 
and he hung around till he ate him all up, and it didn't 
take a great while either. I covered the horse with brush 
and hid the trap in different places, but he'd paw the 
brush away till he'd located the trap before he'd take a 
bite of the horse. I've known bears to walk round and 
round a trap till they'd worn a regular ring in the 
ground. At last I took bee's honey and smoked herrings 
and that was too much of a temptation for him to go by, 
and I got the old fellow. 
"As a rule bears, when they get in a trap, fight them- 
selves and get het up so they choke themselves. If one 
gets in a stream or pond, where he can keep cool, he'll 
live for quite a spell." 
John Cushman's camps are at Katahdin I-ake, under 
the shado.w of Maine's highest mountain. There is good 
fishing and hunting, particularly for caribou, in his sec- 
tion, and it is also a great place for bears. In the last 
three springs Cushman has trapped thirty-five bears, and 
he may be said to make a business of catching bears. 
A year ago last spring Cushman killed three full grown 
bears in one day, and carried no weapon but a ,38cal. 
Smith & Wesson double-action revolver with 5in. barrel. 
His day's work netted him $15 in bounties and $44 for the 
skins, or $59 in all. The fact that he nearly lost his life 
in a hand-to-hand conflict with one of the bears is a 
minor feature of the story. 
"I had forty steel traps worth about $8 or $ro apiece set 
around back of Katahdin Lake," says Cushman. "I made 
all but about four or five of the traps myself. It's no great 
job to make a bear trap. I do most anything from making 
moccasins to snowshoes and canoes. Well, as I was say- 
ing, I was oft' there looking over my traps thirty-five miles 
from home, and alone, at the time, with nobody nearer 
than L. B. Rogers' hunter camp on the East Branch, 
thirteen miles away. I came to a trap that was missing 
and followed up the bear for about ten minutes, and 
walked right up to within 6ft. of the bear before I saw 
him. He'd got hung up by winding the chain around a 
tree, and lay flat on his back in among some brush and 
stuff looking up at me as well as he could. He couldn't 
see very good, for the sun was right in his eyes, and he 
was hung up so he couldn't move. 
"1 shot him and skinned him and took the hide right 
along. It took me from half to three-quarters of an hour 
to skin him. I don't make much business trying to 
hurry when I'm skinning a bear, for fear of cutting the 
skin. 
"I hadn't gone quarter of a mile from that place when I 
found where another bear had gone off with a trap. I 
followed him about a mile, and then the first thing I knew 
I heard a rattling of the chain and saw the bear coming 
toward me on the run. I let him get within a rod and 
fired and killed him stone dead with a bullet in the brain. 
"I took the bear's jacket off and then I walked back 
to the canoe with the two hides, and paddled up the lake 
a piece to where I had some more traps set. I looked over 
several traps before I found one that had done the busi- 
ness. This bear led me quite a chase. I followed the 
trail three hours and ten minutes before I came up to him. 
I had my watch in my hand a good deal of the time, for 
I wanted to allow time to get back to the lake before 
dark, when the walking would be bad. The bear was 
traveling toward the south end of Katahdin, and walked 
in the bed of every brook he came across, and did his best 
to hide his track. 
"As last I heard him making the devil of a roaring' off 
in the woods. I left the trail and struck across toward 
him, following the sound. When I came up he was fast in 
some treetops where four or five large spruces had been 
rooted up hy the wind and the tops thrown together. 
The minute he saw me the bear threw himself on his 
back and put his feet against a log and tried to yank out 
of the trap. I thought if he got out he might make it too 
warm, so I ran in and took a shot at his head, trying to 
cripple him. The bullet struck directly under the ear and 
brought up against the knuckle of the neck bone. It was 
not heavy enough, as it_ happened, to do the bear any 
seroius injury, but it knocked him senseless. I kind of 
took it for granted he was dead, and jumped up on one of 
the trees and walked along it down to where the bear was 
to see if he had good fur — I've killed shedder bears as 
early as the loth of May, and only got $2 for the skin. 
"The bear never stirred, and I started to get the chains 
off the clog, and quick as a flash he had me. My insteps 
had been right against his back, but quicker than I could 
think he turned over and was standing on his feet facing 
me. His mouth was within 6in. of my face, and his 
breath didn't smell good. He was in the act of nailing me 
with his claws, and I had to shove him off mighty quick 
without choosing where to put my hand, either, anywhere 
so as to get him away in the shortest order, so I shoved 
my left hand, as it happened, square into his mouth. 
"If I'd had my revolver in the case there'd never been 
no chance for me at all, but I'd never put it up. and it 
Ayas still in my right hand. With the same motion that I' 
shoved the bear off I raised the pistol and put the muzzle 
on to the bear's head so close that it burned the hair off, 
and gave hirn four shots. Of course, I jerked my left 
hand back mighty quick out of the bear's mouth, but I 
wasn't quite quick enough to prevent him getting his 
teeth into the middle finger. If he'd held me for one in- 
stant he'd stove me right to pieces, but I knew I had to get 
that hand out, and so it came. 
"The bear got those four shots in him from my double- 
action pistol before he ever touched the ground, and 
when he did he was dead for keeps. 
'T-Ie'd ripped up my finger pretty well, and' there was a 
piece of the cord half an inch long sticking out. I 
cut the cord off with my knife and took and laid a chunk 
of flesh right in and bound up my hand. Then I skinned 
tlie bear and set the trap again, and took the hide and 
went back to my canoe and paddled over to camp. After 
that I took the three hides and went through thirteen 
miles to Rogers' camp, and spent the night there. Charley 
Hunt, of Staceyville, and John McNally, of Sherman, 
were there, and I got John to wash the hand and do 
it up again. It was swollen very bad and pained me 
so that I couldn't sleep. The next day I started at 6 in 
the morning and got home that afternoon, carrying my 
three bearskins. I was laid up a month with that hand 
and couldn't feed myself or touch anything. The finger 
won't work right yet, and I never expect it will. I got 
two quarts of bears' teeth and toe nails since then, though, 
and I feel satisfied." 
Messrs. Wing and Cushman both are willing to take 
sportsmen with them on their trapping expeditions. May 
is the best month for bears. J. B. Burnham. 
Arkansas and the South. 
Little Rock, Ark., Aug. 13.— At this season oE the 
year there is little to shoot but wood ducks and doves, 
but of these there are quite a number. The best summer 
duck shooting, I am informed, is at Beaver Dam Lake, 
which is in Mississippi, forty-three miles from Memphis', 
on the Yazoo Valley Railroad, where some Memphis 
sportsmen control a preserve. This club opens the sea- 
son July 4, and on the 20th Dr. R. W. Mitchell and Tom 
O' Sullivan were there and bagged seventy-seven ducks, 
of which Dr. Mitchell killed fifty, the limit. Mr. O'Sulli- 
van, who is quite an old man, had the misfortune to 
break his glasses, or he would also have got the limit, 
he tells me. Several days later Nash. Buckingham and 
Carl Neptune bagged sixty. This club has been in ex- 
istence sixteen years, and before the rule limiting the bag 
to fifty ducks a day was adopted it frequently occurred 
that 100 ducks a day were shot to the single gun. 
During the entire period of the club existence there has 
never been a change of officers; those who were chosen 
when the club was organized have been re-elected each 
ensuing year. This reflects great credit on those thus 
honored. They are: Dr. R. W. Mitchell, President; W. 
A. Wheatley, Secretary and Treasurer, and J. A. Austin, 
Chai rman of Executive Committee. One other person 
who has been a fixture for nearly this length of time is 
the club's cook and caretaker, Andrew Jackson Bounds, 
who has been with the club fourteen years. The club 
does not own the lake where its preserve is located, but 
leases it, and has only recently renewed this for another 
term of years. 
The W^apanocka Club members also enjoy good wood 
duck shooting on their famous preserve, which is situated 
in eastern Arkansas, and which contains 6,000 acres of 
land and water and requires fourteen miles of fence to 
inclose. A party consisting of J. P. Ederington, A. C. 
Treadwell, John Overton, Jr.; Robert Galloway, Dr. J. 
S. Minor and others were over on opening day, which is 
Aug. I with this club. But though there were plenty of 
ducks, the party averaged only about ten ducks per man. 
The water in the lake is ver^- low, and the extreme heat 
had killed a great many fish, which were scattered about 
on the water and along the bank, and these produced 
such an offensive odor that it precluded all possibilty of 
remaining on the lake any length of time. 
The membership of this club is limited to forty, and the 
stock is valued at $1,000, but nevertheless there are no 
vacancies, and at present there are four or five applica- 
tions on file. This club employs a keeper, who is also a 
deputy sheriff, to patrol its land, for in addition to its fine 
duck shooting there are also deer, turkey and squirrels 
on its preserve. 
At both these clubs the daily "bag of ducks is limited to 
fifty, and there is also a clause prohibiting the members 
from offering any of their game for sale, under penalty 
of expulsion. 
The Hatchie Coon Club and Oak Donick are both sit- 
uated in Arkansas, and are located on the bank of the St. 
Francis River. The membership of these organizations 
is also com.posed mostly of Memphis sportsmen, and re- 
cently they have been merged into one. The principal 
attraction this club has to offer consists of the fine bass 
fishing to be had in the St. Francis River, which has been 
the best for the past twenty years. The club limits the 
number of bass to be taken in a single day to fifty, and 
it frequently occurs that these are taken in a few hours 
by the more skillful members, while even the novice has 
no difficulty in taking the limit. Perch and channel cats 
are not limited, and these are equally plentiful. The club 
house is quite a structure, and the club keeps a capable 
and competent man in charge to look after the wants of 
the members, and as the accommodations are first-class 
in every respect the members' wives and families fre- 
quently accompany them. 
The membership of this club is limited to 100, and the 
stock is in great demand at $175 per share. This pre- 
serve embraces about 800 acres fronting on the St, Fran- 
cis River. 
While in Memphis the other day I was informed that 
the dove shooting in that vicinity was not as good as 
usual, but notwithstanding some very fair bags were 
being made. I was also told that last year a party of 
Memphis shooters went to Senatobia, Miss., and slaugh- 
tered 1,200 doves in a single day. 
Here in this part of Arkansas the dove shooting has 
been very good, and bags of from twenty-five to forty 
are regular occurrences. But the weather has been very 
liot the past two weeks, and there is-plenty of hard work 
connected with this kind of shooting. 
Paul R, Litzke. 
Antiquity of Hunting* 
Probably the forefathers- of All mankind were hunters. 
This presumption is one of the most reasonable things, we 
can imagine, whatever may be the true theory of the origin 
of man. This must be admitted by all people who admit 
anything, regardless of those who never do. 
In the matter of hunting, moreover, man does not 
greatly differ from all other creatures of the animal 
world, nor, it may also be said, from the creatures of the 
vegetable or even of the mineral kingdoms. It is one 
of the most apparent facts that everything endowed with 
life is eternally in quest of some other creature or thing. 
I shall entertain this belief until some hunter digs up a 
microbe, a mote, or any other kind of a thing that is 
absolutely inert. To do this he will, perhaps, hav^ to dig 
up something that does not exist. 
This belief of mine, however true, does not seem to 
make much difference anyhow or anywhere, somehow. 
There are so many kinds of hunters and so much diversity 
in the hunting that it neither evens up, 1 ,vels nor squares 
anything in particular. The mineral particles that are 
eternally in quest of some other particles, the roots, fibers 
and juices that are forever reaching out for what they 
seek, the microbe, the mite, the pollywog, the catfish, the 
whale, the leviathan, the mugwump, the monkey and 
man are all engaged chiefly in the same pursuit — hunting 
something else. 
Nevertheless, this business of hunting, that is car- 
ried on so extensively and so continuously, has a great 
deal to do with the goings on in this world , so much, in- 
deed, that I hope someone agrees with me in iny opinion 
that hunting is not given the distinguished importance 
to which it is peculiarly entitled. 
Without meddling with the millions of other creatures 
addicted to hunting, it is enough, in the .space likely to be 
allowed this essay, to consider man in what may be the 
first position. Man is so unmistakably a natural born 
hunter that 1 am of the opinion he ought to be measured 
by some sort of a Nimrod^ — that is to say, some measure 
expressly designed to ascertain his real dimensions in 
comparative respect to other hunting creatures. 
With proper deference to things ancient and sayings 
proverbial, isn't it about time a new set of saws was 
fixed up for generations coming on hereafter? As an 
instance, if there is nothing new under the sun, there ought 
to be an organized and earnest effort to fix some old thing 
over so that it will seem at least as good as new. If pos- 
terity could request something of us, especially something 
American, the demand would doubtless be for a few new, 
or at least thoroughly renovated, aphorisms. All the old 
gambols have been shown ; and some of them have exposed 
themselves. 
As another instance — an instance of anytliing you please 
— a man is not known by the company he keeps," scarcely. 
Very pious people have sometimes been thrust among 
sinners, in jails and other evil places. Again, some very 
religious and not well-known men keep all sorts of com- 
pany in houses they rent, in business they do, and while 
they are hunting. And there are gun clubs and associa- 
tions of sportsmen who differ. 
The saying has perhaps done more harm than is thought 
for. How miich better it would be to establish a fact, in- 
stead of a trite lingo that doesn't either rhyme or stay 
where you put it. If we could fix that phrase over and 
say a man is known by the hunting he does, there is no 
doubt posterity would like the flavor of it. Such a com- 
bination of words and wisdom in small compass ought to 
be in some Poor Richard's almanack in the year 2000, 
which comes hereafter quite a while. 
There are other instances. Instead of saying How do 
you do? How are you? and How is Smith or Brown 
getting along? — instead of asking these questions a thou- 
sand times we might be less tiresome and monotonous 
by saying What are you hunting to-day.?' Did you find 
it yesterday? or What is Smith hunting for this time? 
Replies to such questions would doubtless signify some- 
thing. 
Men are forever hunting, and women are usually quietly 
or otherwise in quest of something. This fact is estab- 
lished beyond legitimate refutation, for it rnay be traced 
throughout history. Scripture and mythology; while the 
incredulous and skeptics may either assure themselves of 
it by daily observation, or, as they have been known to 
do in other cases, avoid the proofs to maintain their stub- 
born opinions and characters. 
Digging in my garden recently (where I dig chiefly in 
hope of digging up something, about the only way I raise 
anything) I dug up evidence that goes to establish my 
theories of things. I think I am tlie first civilian that ever 
dug up the ground or anything else where my garden is, 
and I have unearthed more gophers, bugs, snails, spiders! 
scorpions, tarantulas and other gewgaws than I have had 
any use for; most of them were evidently hunting, even in 
the earth, for other things. 
The evidence alluded to consists of some several arrow 
and spear heads, chipped from obsidian, together with a 
stone mortar and two pestles for the same. These relics 
of the noble red man (and woman as well) were found 
under about a foot of earth by the stump of a large black 
oak, on the bank of a small stream. There is no way 
of learning how long these primitive implements were 
buried, but they are apparently as good as they ever 
were. 
The rehcs of people long since gone to an everlasting 
oblivion, so far as concerns those who survive them, of- 
fered an excellent opportunity for reflection and conjee- 
ture. Having always found it more to my liking to rumi- 
nate than dig, I abandoned, for a time, at least, that 
purely physical exercise in order to defer to intellectual 
impulse. Base is the slave who digs or delves and likes 
to do_it. The world, in my opinion, is overburdened with 
sweating laborers. They have been perverted from their 
original and natural instincts as hunters and gentlemen. 
This region is full of wild-eyed, unkempt and underfed 
lunatics digging for gold. They are yet hunters, but they 
would be lucid for intervals at least if they were diggino- 
worms for bait, and they would be improving the surface 
of the earth, even if bait fishing were prohibited or they 
couldn't catch a sunfish. ' 
The red aborigines had the loftier instincts. In fash- 
ioning with infinite patience his arrowheads of black flint 
in shaping his primitive bows and arrow^s, and in huntin-^ 
for the things that supplied his real needs, I say he vaa 
