OftlST AMD STREAM. 
covered the bear's nose right alongside ^ chunk of moss 
on a tree. His body was nearly Concealed by one trei, 
and a second tree closer yet made only a narrow open- 
ing through which it was possible to. se_e.the bear. Pretty 
soon he dropped down on all fours, arid went to digging 
beechnuts again about twelve rods away. 
I dropped on one knee and sighted rny double-barrel 
rifle on his shoulder, but when I pulled, the cap snapped. 
The bear riz his head up and looked square at me. I 
tried the other barrel, and that went off all right, and 
the bear keeled over and growled and snapped, and by 
and by he grunted like a hog — 'woof, woof.' The next 
think I knew he M'^as on his feet and . coming toward 
me. I had a mare that weighed ten hundred and fifty, 
and the bear looked every bit as big, though not as 
tall. He was as big again as any bear I ever saved. 
"I traded my ©Id gun since then, but if I had it now 
I guess 3^ou could see where my fingers dented into the 
ii-on. The bear never swer^'ed till he was close tip, and 
he went by me not ten feet away. I was glad to see 
him go, too. I think I shot him in the right shoulder 
and that the ball didn't go through. He bled quite a 
plentj^. but wasn't hit hard enough to stop him. 
"He hadn't much more'n got by when tlie dogs and 
Charlie came up on the run. The dogs took the trail and 
followed the bear half a mile, but then they quit. I 
guess they didn't like the looks of the bear, and thought 
he was a little bigger chaw than they wanted. It was 
near nightfall, so Charlie and I quit, too. 
"The next day Charlie and. I started out again. We 
had made up our minds we were going to get that bear 
anyway. The track wasn't easy to follow, and we had 
^ to take particular notice to keep it at all. The beH.r 
' would run along a piece and then back track and jump 
of? to to one side, where we wouldn't be apt to see the 
track. 
"When we had followed two miles I saw a buck and 
shot at him, but didn't get the deer — darned dough head 
I was! 
"A piece further on I saw the bear. He had started 
across an open place and was on the run. I pulled up 
and shot, but just that minute he jumped into a hollow 
and I must have shot over. He went on out of sight 
through a thick growth of evergreen brush. I stood 
still, figuring it out, and though I didn't know it till 
afterward, that bear circled and came back within a 
few feet of where I stood. A small bushy spruce was 
standing in his way, and when he came to that he sheered 
just enough to pass it, and if it hadn't 'a' been for that 
we'd 'a' had a clinch. I don't know whether he saw me 
or not. I've shot quite a number of bears in the woods, 
and my experience is that they came for me when they 
were shot. 
"The next day Henry Newcomb and Kirk Reed and 
I went out and followed the bear about two miles, and 
then lost the track, right in good, open sailing, too. 
The day after that Henry Newcomb and Mart Moody 
went with me. On our trail going in we found where a 
big bear had crossed, and there was blood in the trail. 
Mart said it was the same bear. I said it wasn't; that 
the track was not so big. But Mart niust have his way 
about it, and we followed the track two or three miles 
and then concluded it was another bear and gave it up- 
"I never saw such a track before or since as that bear 
had. The forward foot was as wide as my two hands 
laid side by side and the thumb between. My foot would 
not fill his hind track — and I've got quite a foot, as you 
see — not to count the three pair of socks I had on 
besides my moccasins." 
McBride paused, as if he had finished. After a ino- 
ment he continued speaking slowly as the facts recurred 
to his memory. 
"Next day but one I heard from Gale's hunting 
ground, Massawepie Lake, that they run on a big 
bear that was bleeding, and followed it two hours. Saw 
a deer and shot at it. 
"At one of the houses down at the windfall, four or 
five miles away, I heard they got on the track of a big 
bear that was bleeding. They followed a spell, got in 
where deer was plenty, and left him. * * * * 
"Guess if my first charge had a-went he'd a laid right 
there." 
The Last "Wolf. 
Presently I roused McBride by asking if he held Sim 
Mood3''s opinion that the moose and wolves migrated 
from the Adirondacks. He replied in the negative, stat- 
ing that he believed they had been "mostly killed off." 
Thirtjr years ago, however, he said there was a moose 
near Cranberry Lake, and he had never heard of its 
being killed. He mentioned the beaver at Whitney 
Pond, and then told of the last wolf he had seen around 
Tupper Lake. 
"Thirty-two years ago I was fishing at the head of this 
slang on Simonds' Pond for trout through the ice. I 
was lying down watching my bait, and every once in a 
while pulling out a trout. After a spell they didn't bite 
very good, and I got kinder tired lying in one posi'tion 
and I rolled over so my face was toward the other shore 
and I see something on the ice sixty or seventy rods 
away that I knew wasn't there before. I made up my 
mind it was a deer. It was a kind of grayish color, and it 
was a good ways ofi. 
"I went back to the house and got my gun and dog 
and started out, thinking I'd have some venison. When 
I came back I could still see the thing out on the ice. 
The dog took after it, and it looked like a deer running, 
and it wasn't till after it got off the crusty snow next 
shore and into the woods where it broke through that I 
saw from the track it had claws instead of hoofs. The 
dog, too, wouldn't follow it. 
"That afternoon a young fellow working for Sid 
Jenkins at the head of Tupper Lake saw something cross- 
ing on the ice. He got his gun and ran out on a point 
to bead it. It was a wolf, and it came within twenty-five 
rods. He shot at it and bled it, but the wolf got away." 
"I think most of the wolves that inhabited this country 
were trapped. Bill Eastman and a man by the name of 
Leonard spent a great deal of time trapping wolves in 
the Mud Lake and Bog River country. Uncle Niles 
ITamblin caught a lot. That was thirty to forty years ago 
and there was $20 bounty money on wolves then. 
Uncle Hamblin's Decf Story. 
"Uncle Hamblin was telling about still-hunting one 
time, The story may sdubd kind of funny, but I fleter 
ketched him lying, diid Vti got a fight to believe a tiiaii 
until I do. ' : ~ 
"It was up at the head C>f Grasse River. There came 
good still-hunting and Unfle Hamblin left off his trap- 
ping, and decided he'd get him some deer. He got into 
camp just at night, . and ^-run up some bullets. Next 
morning he started out, and he hadn't gone but a little 
ways, when he came to a, swamp. A small deer jumped 
up and he shot at it. The deer didn't stir, and he walked 
up toward it. First thing he knew, there was another 
deer. Shot again — deer, .didn't stir. 
"Uncle Hamblin had a double-barrel rifle that was 
different from any other gun I ever saw. You could 
shoot the barrels singly or you could shoot 'em both at 
once. If you shot the hind charge first, both would go. 
"Uncle Hamblin loaded up, and went on hunting. He 
got down in the edge of the swamp, where it was pretty 
middling thick, and he see another deer. He shot at the 
deer and it went out of sight. Walked up toward it — see 
another. Shot at that. Walked toward it, and up got 
another. Kept on shooting that way, not bothering with 
any deer he found down, till he run out of bullets. Then 
he stood his gun up ag'in a tree and went to hunting his 
dead deer. 
"He started at one place and drew the deer that were 
lying around handy to it there, and then he went back on 
his tracks and started in again, and when he was through 
he had three piles with five deer in each pile. 
"When he'd got his deer together Uncle Hamblin went 
back to camp and started running balls. He'd kinder 
got his appetite whetted, and said he was going to have 
a hunt that was a hunt. But it began to rain heavy, and 
formed quite a crust, and got so noisy he couldn't get 
up to another deer, so he give it up, and went and hung 
up the deer he'd killed in the morning and went next 
day and got a team to draw them out. Uncle Niles was a 
cracking good hunter." 
"He's dead now?" I asked. 
"He ought to be if he ain't. When deer hides was a 
dollar a pound he took the hides and let the meat rot. 
Bill Graves was out with him one time on Bog River, 
and Uncle Hamblin shot and broke u deer's back. He 
skinned him before he was dead and threw him back in 
the brush. 'There,' says he, 'go and grow another hide 
on ye.' They killed seven deer that day, and only saved 
two. 
Killing a Bear with a Club* 
"I've experimented with trapped bears some to find 
out Where's the best place to hit 'em with a club to kill," 
remarked McBride. 
"When you try to hit a hear on the nose he'll curl 
his nose in under so's you can't reach him. Ef you can 
get a wipe at a bear at the side of his head under the ear 
that's the best spot, and you'll knock him down if your 
club is a good stout one. They're apt to get up again, 
though, if you don't attend to them some more while you 
have the chance. You can hit them on the front of the 
skull all day and not knock 'em off their feet. 
"Charlie Cornell wanted to see a bear in a trap, and 
he went up with me one day when I was looking ray 
traps, and we found a pretty good-sized bear, caught all 
right, though the clog wasn't hitched, and he could get 
around pretty well. Charlie had a muzzleloading rifle 
that shot a ball that would run ninety or so to the 
pound. It was a good shooting gun, though too light. 
At three or four rods Charlie could hit a cent about 
every time. 
"Charlie got up pretty close to the bear and sighted on 
the ear and gave him a shot. The bear just whined a 
little and put up one paw and scratched its ear like it 
tickled. 
"I says to Charlie that gun of yours ain't no good; 
take a club and kill him. He tried it, and the bear got 
him by the breeches and tore them clear up most to his 
ham — just missed getting his hide, too. 
"I told Charlie he'd got to kill the bear with a club, 
and I worked him till the sweat was running off him in 
a stream. I must have kept him pounding that bear 
two hours. I made up my mind to give him all the fun 
he wanted, so's he wouldn't be following me 'round to 
my traps any more, I had hold of the dog most of the 
time, so's the bear couldn't get at him, and do the best 
he could. Charlie wasn't able to hurt the bear very much. 
When I thought he'd had enough of it, I gave him my 
gun and let him finish the bear, 
A Wounded Man in the Woods, 
"Charlie didn't get enough of it, though, at that time. 
He went out with me later on, when I went to look a trap 
at the foot of Raquette Pond. The trap was on a hill, 
and below it on the shore there were a lot of logs that 
a man had to climb over. 
"Charlie jumped out of the boat and started for the 
trap. He was careless with a gun, and I was afraid of him 
and had to be always telling him to be careful or he'd 
shoot somebody. When he went to climb over the logs 
he rested on his gun and it slipped down a little and 
went off and put a ball right through his chest and 
shoulder, 
" 'Oh, God,' he says, 'I'm shot.' 
" 'You're not,' I says; 'the ball never touched you.' 
'Says he, 'I be; look a-there.' 
"His hide was burnt where the ball went in, and the 
blood had started running down his clothes. He wanted 
to know if I thought the wound was fatal. I told him the 
ball couldn't have gone through his lungs much if any. 
"It must have hurt, for he jacked himself up a good 
deal like a cat. 
"I started and got him back to the boat, never looking 
at the trap at all. 
"I took Charlie to Mart Moody's place, and when I'd got 
'em to understand it wasn't no joke, I went for an old 
doctor sportsman who lived at the head of the lake. This 
old doctor, when he saw Charlie, told him he couldn't 
live. Every time Charlie coughed the blood squirted 
from his wound. The doctor set to and stopped the 
blood, which was a wrong thing to do in my judgment; 
that loose blood in him ought to have come out. 
"We started a telegram to Keeseville for a doctor. 
Next night Dr. Barber came. He lit a lantern and went 
in and looked at Charlie, said there was a chance for 
him, but that it was one in ten if he got well. Next day 
Dr. Devi new (D'Avignon), of Keeseville, came and ex- 
amined him. Charlie was mad—didn't like it at all-= 
said he didtt't want so much fussing and doctoring. 
"We sent a telegram to his folks in Brooklyn, and his 
rnother and brother-in-law came on and stayed with 
him. Devinew went back to Keeseville. Barber stayed 
three weeks, and it ended by Charlie getting well" 
* * * * * t * 
"A long while after, Charlie came up here one time. 
He had grown big and stout, and I didn't know him at 
first. He'd had hard luck; went into the coal business, 
and another man came along and set up beside him and 
played hog, so that Charlie lost his money and had to 
quit. After that he got to drinking hard, and the last I 
heard of him he was dead. It wasn't the bullet that killed 
him, though." J. B. Burnham. 
A Rough Time in the Clearwater 
Country. 
Missoula, Mont.— Not since Gen. Howard followed 
Chief Joseph through the Clearwater Mountains has there 
been so much interest taken in that uninviting and com- 
paratively unknown country as in the past season, when 
the N. P. R, R. began building its road eastward from 
Lewiston, Ida., to some point in Montana. Forty-five 
rniles from Missoula, Mont., up Lo Lo cafion and withm 
six miles of the summit of the Bitter Root Mountains are 
the Lc Lo and Granite Hot Springs. Here during the 
summer are many campers from the valley below, who 
come either for an outing or to get the benefit of the 
waters of the springs. It is through here that the old 
Lo Lo and Lewiston trail passes through the Lo Lo 
Pass. There is little or no settlement from here tc 
Lewiston, 150 miles away, through a country wild enough 
to satisfy the most adventurous. 
While at the Granite Springs last summer we got up 
a party of five, consisting of Charles Warren and wife, 
A. M. Stevens and wife and D. A. Sheldon. We had five 
saddle horses and five pack horses. Sheldon was armed 
with a heavy rifle as a protection against grizzly bears, 
which are quite plenty. Mr. Warren and his wife were 
armed with fish-rods and plenty of trout flies; Mr. 
Stevens with a Stevens .22 rifle to keep the cock 
grouse from strutting ahead on the trail (a very 
disagreeable practice they have), and lastly Mr. 
Stevens carried a 5 by 7 camera; this was to be the re- 
cording scribe of the trip. It did its work well, and 
we have thirty pictures of a country few people have seen. 
Our first halt was at Pack Creek, twelve miles from the 
springs. Here are meadows some two miles long near 
the summit of the range. The creek here is small, about 
8 feet wide, with deep banks and slow current. It was 
raining when we got here; in fact, I believe it either rains 
or snows here every day in the year. We met an old 
man camped across the creek, who was found dead on 
the trail a month later. He told us we could not catch 
trout there without bait, and not very well with it, as he 
had fished an hour and only caught six. We were not 
to be put off_ so easy. Warren and wife and Stevens and 
wife fished in the rain for one hour, barring the time 
we were fighting mosquitoes. We used a No. 8 royal- 
coachman fly and caught ninety-six little fellows from 5 
to 8 inches long. They were very dark, nearly black, 
with light spots on their sides. In the morning we 
found that it had cleared off during the night and frozen 
hard enough to take a sharp blow to break the ice. We 
took a picture of our outfit and then started for the Clear- 
water, ten miles away. 
This is a pretty rough trail, as much of it is over very 
steep mountains, where for twenty-five years no fallen 
timber has been cut out of the trail. Some of it is pretty 
high jumping, which is not pleasant riding either going 
up or down a steep side hill. At the first crossing of 
the Clearwater, called by some the Little Crooked Fork, 
there is no feed for the horses, the mountains coming 
close down to the water's edge, while the timber grows 
so dense that scarce a ray of sun penetrates to the earth. 
We unpacked our animals to give them rest, and we tried 
the fishing, which we found all right, as we caught seven- 
ty-two in less than an hour. Mrs. Stevens caught the 
largest one, of about 2 pounds in weight. She was stand- 
ing on a large smooth boulder, which she had worked 
out to; and at the time he struck either she was excited 
or he pulled too hard, for she went off the rock, breaking 
a hole in that swift-running ice water about 3 feet long. 
But being a true sportswoman, she held a taught line, 
and worked shoreward, safely landing the prize. 
After dinner we were going on, when a prospector 
came across the river from the opposite side. He re- 
ported having seen no horse feed for fifty miles back, and 
taking me one side said, "Never try making that trail 
with those wimin. I have been eighteen years in the 
mountains, but never saw so bad a trail before. It is 
surely dangerous." This not being a very encouraging 
outlook to go on, we camped there for the night, taking 
an early start in the morning. 
We found the trail bad enough, but not worse than we 
had seen. We followed it about five miles to the top 
and kept along the summit for another five. From here 
we could get some fine views of the Clearwater Basin. ' 
All along the trail huckleberries grew in abundance, the 
bus les being so high that we gathered them from horse^ 
back. We left the trail on a spur, which put off the main 
ridge to the south. The day was perfect, and as we saw 
plcTity to interest us we did not hurrv. Grouse, moose 
and elk were plenty; and as there had been no one here 
for two years it was easy to surprise them by keeping 
quiet. The forest fires had burned over several hundred 
acres on this ridge, and the grass was fine. Tracks 
showed that the game were numerous, and we concluded 
that this must be their feeding ground for some distance 
around .^.s the open season does not begin until Sept 
15 we did not feel like killing them in August although 
a long way from an officer. We saw two n^oose and 
a small band of elk on our trip, the latter on a lick we 
found on the edge of a swamp we were unable to cross 
As It was 5 o'clock, we camped, thinking that in th? 
morning we could find our way through As the mo» ' 
qmtoes were very bad, and there was no feed for tte 
horses, we went back on the mountain and made a dry 
camp Morning came, and with it clouds, and we soon 
found we were m the home of the thunder. We saw 
the showers form and descend to the valley below Soon 
