AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
167 
hole, and one of the old bears is out, may be before I get 
back — for it was three miles in the woods from home — it 
will come and pull away my stopping stuff, and they will 
all be off before I get back; and then I shall have my hunt 
for nothing. No, I won’t do that, anyway. Well then, 
there was but one other way for it, and so, as the tree was 
very straight, I just levelled my rifle like into the hole, 
as exactly in a line as I could, according as the tree lay, 
and I fired away, and then stept back, so as to knock any 
thing that should come out down with my rifle; and I had 
the advantage on my side, for only one could come out at a 
time, if the tree was full of them. But nothing came out. 
Well, after waiting some time, I poked my head into the 
tree to listen again, and I heard the same noise of scratch- 
ing, and another noise, which I was sure was of an animal 
choking with the blood in his throat; and I thought now 
its a pity I have not a dog with me; but I had no dog, and 
so I said I shall have to act dog myself. I had some 
thought of shooting into the tree again; but it was a pity 
to waste the lead; for I was sure that the bear, or whatever 
he was, was choaked already; but then I was not quite 
sartain sure whether it was the old one, or the young ones, 
or all of them that were in the tree; and I was in a poker- 
ish kind of a situation; for may be it was only the young 
ones, and if I went in, the old one might come in after 
me. But I thought the tarnal thing should not get off after 
all; and so I loaded my rifle, and put two balls in it, and 
when I crept into the tree, I took my knife in my right 
hand forward, and I pulled my rifle along after me with 
the other hand, with the muzzle pointing backwards, so 
that if any one came in after me, I might have a crack at 
it. Well, when I got into the tree it was quite dark, and 
I crept, and crept, and crept, till I thought there was 
almost no end to it; for it was a very great pine, and you 
know how tall the pines grow near the North Branch. 
However, at last, when I had got into it, I guess a matter 
of fifty feet, I put my hand on something hairy, and I 
found it was a young one. It was dead; I had killed it. 
And then I had to creep out again, and pull it after me. 
And so I went in again, and got another dead one. I had 
killed two. My ball had gone right through one, and 
into the other. And then I went in again, and again, and 
again, and so brought out three live ones; and after all 
they were all young wolves, and no bears at all.” 
But, Jonathan, when you crept, and crept, as you say 
“ a matter of fifty feet,” pulling your rifle after you, sup- 
pose they had been bears, as you thought, and one had 
come in after you, and you had fired away, and shot it 
dead, and you then in the tree, and three miles from any 
house, how would you have got out? 
“ Sure enough — I never thought of that.” R. 
AN EXTRAORDINARY PIKE. 
I saw a very large fish, (says Colonel Thornton,) come 
at me, and, collecting my line, 1 felt I had him fairly 
hooked; but I feared he had run himself tight round some 
root, his weight seemed so dead; we rowed up, therefore, 
to the spot, when he soon convinced me he was at liberty, 
by running me so far into the lake, that I had notone inch 
of line more to give him. The servants, foreseeing the 
consequences of my situation, rowed with great expedi- 
tion towards the fish, which now rose about seventy yards 
from us, an absolute wonder! I relied on my tackle, which 
I knew was in every respect excellent, as I had, in conse- 
quence of the large Pike killed the day before, put on 
hooks, and gimp, adjusted with great care; a precaution 
which would have been thought superfluous in London, 
as it certainly was for most lakes, though here, barely 
equal to my fish. After playing him for some time, I 
gave the rod to Captain Waller, that he might have the 
honour of landing him; fori thought him quite exhausted, 
when to our surprise, we were again constrained to follow 
the monster nearly across this great lake, having the wind, 
too, much against us. The whole party were nowin high 
blood, and the delightful Ville de Paris quite manageable; 
frequently he flew out of the water to such a height, that 
though I knew the uncommon strength of my tackle, I 
dreaded losing such an extraordinary fish, and the anxiety 
of our little crew was equal to mine. After about an hour 
and a quarter’s play, however, we thought we might 
safely attempt to land him, which was done in the follow- 
ing manner: Newmarket, a lad so called from the place 
of his nativity, who had now come to assist, I ordered, 
with another servant, to strip and wade in as far as possi- 
ble; which they readily did. In the mean time I took 
the landing net, while Captain Waller judiciously ascend- 
ing the hill above, drew him gently towards us. He ap- 
proached the shore very quietly, and we thought him 
quite safe, when, seeing himself surrounded by his ene- 
mies, he in an instant made a last desperate effort, shot 
into the deep again, and, in the exertion, threw one of the 
men on his back. His immense size was now very appa- 
rent; we proceeded with all due caution, and, being once 
more drawn towards land, I tried to get his head into the 
net, upon effecting which, the servants were ordered to 
seize his tail, and slide him on shore: I took all imagina- 
ble pains to accomplish this, but in vain, and I began to 
think myself strangely awkward, when at length, having 
got his snout in, I discovered that the hoop of the net, 
though adapted to very large Pike, would admit no more 
than that part. He was, however, completely spent, and, 
in a few moments, we landed him, a perfect monster ! He 
