390 
FOREST AND STREAM 
September, 1921 
of the Woods. Riley said he would 
keep on east for a while, and then 
would swing around south and follow 
the hillside facing towards Pelican Bay. 
The country I was passing through 
was pretty heavily timbered and rather 
brushy and although I heard deer sev- 
eral times go bouncing off, I never 
caught sight of any. As I neared the 
top of the Divide, however, I began to 
find more open ground, with now and 
then an open glade that looked more fa- 
vorable for game. Pretty soon I came 
to a burn of perhaps eight or ten acres 
and had the 
satisfaction of 
seeing two big 
bucks just go- 
ing out on the 
opposite side. 
They disap- 
peared before 
I had time to 
a h o o t, so I 
went on to 
where I had 
seen them, and 
discovered that 
both tracks 
were of im- 
m e n s e size. 
This made me 
pretty anxious 
to get one or 
both of them, 
so I made up 
my mind to 
follow them. 
Trailor was 
a won derful 
dogtoslow 
track and I 
put him on the 
track and put 
a string on the 
other dog to 
keep him back, as I knew he was 
liable to break at any minute and I 
could control Trailor without any 
trouble. The trail led us down the hill 
a ways and then turned to the right and 
went out around the side of old Mt. Pitt 
for probably a half or three-quarters of 
a mile. It then turned and went down 
into a basin. I could see all over it, 
but the brush was so high that I knew 
there was no use in going down in it 
for if I got the deer up there would 
be no chance to see them. 
So I concluded to turn Ranger loose 
and send him down and take chances 
on getting them as they came out, as 
the ground was favorable on either 
side, unless they should happen to go 
out down hill. I started Ranger on the 
tracks and, selecting a good place, 
waited results. He never made a 
noise, but I could see the bushes shake 
as he went along, and when he got 
down in the middle I heard him start 
to bay and then the brush began to 
crack and I could see the big horns of 
the deer as they tore through the high 
brush. In a few seconds one of them 
turned down hill and the other, after 
tearing along for thirty or forty yards, 
came out into an open rocky place and 
dropped into a walk, holding his head 
high up with his big antlers waving 
back and forth, making a grand sight. 
I caught a bead behind his shoulders 
and fired. He sprang high in the air 
and flapped his tail down, which was a 
sure sign that the bullet had passed 
through his heart. He ran a few 
yards and fell. Ranger had gone after 
the other one and in a minute or two 
I heard him commence to bay. I went 
on down and there was the deer backed 
up against a bush and every now and 
then he would make a vicious lunge 
at Ranger, who would get out of his 
way. I kept Trailor with me and made 
my way down to within fifty yards of 
the deer and then shot him in the 
neck, and down he went. He was a big 
one, having nine points on one horn 
and ten on the other. The one I had 
killed first was a six-pointer. Both of 
them were very fat. All I could do 
now was to dress them and turn them 
over on their backs as I couldn’t hang 
them up alone. 
1 NOW turned back east again and 
hunted towards the ridge that Riley 
was supposed to be on. I passed 
through some fine hunting ground but 
saw no more deer until I got to a 
creek that runs into the Lake of the 
Woods, called Paradise Creek. Here I 
ran into a bunch of does and fawns 
that stood and looked at me until I 
had counted them and then I walked 
towards them. This was a great temp- 
tation to Ranger and I had to watch 
him pretty closely and speak pretty 
sharply to him several times, but he 
didn’t go after them. Trailor looked 
at them and then looked at me and 
looked back again, as much as to say: 
“Aren’t you going to shoot those deer?” 
I said: “Never mind, Trailor, we don’t 
want them.” That ended it. He 
seemed perfectly satisfied and never 
looked toward them again. 
I crossed the creek and went on until 
I got to the top of the ridge that 
overlooks Pelican Bay, and here I con- 
cluded to blow the horn and see if 
I could find Hammersly. Sure enough, 
he answered me away off down the 
hill towards the Lake of the Woods, and 
in a few seconds he blew his horn again 
and this time he gave me the signal 
to come to him. I lit out down that 
way and every now and then I would 
stop and give the horn a toot and he 
would answer me. 
After going perhaps a mile I came 
up to him and 
found him sit- 
ting on a log- 
waiting for 
me. He didn’t 
seem to be in 
any hurry to 
tell me what 
he wanted, so 
I said: “What 
is the matter 
with you? 
What do you 
wan t?” H e 
said: “Come 
here and I’ll 
show you 
something.” So 
I went down 
to where he 
was and he 
said: “Look 
t h e r e.” I 
looked and saw 
a n immense 
bear track 
just below the 
log that he 
was sitting on. 
He said he had 
been following 
the track for 
two hours without stopping. While we 
were talking the dogs jumped over 
the log and upon discovering the 
track were off like a shot. We 
could hear them going down towards 
the lake making one continual roar, and 
I knew they were bound to overtake the 
bear before long, if they kept that up. 
So we struck out after them and we 
went pretty lively, too, I can tell you. 
It wasn’t long before we heard them 
give voice to a different note, and then 
I knew that the fight was on. 
We hurried along as fast as possible 
and every little while we would stop 
and listen, and every time they seemed 
to be in the same place, although they 
did not bark as though they had treed 
the bear. I told Riley we would have 
to be very cautions and not let the bear 
know that we were coming or we might 
have a big chase, so when we got down 
to within a hundred yards of him we 
slid along as easily as we could. There 
was lots of timber but very little 
brush, so we made sure to keep behind 
the trees until we got up to within fifty 
or sixty yards. We moved along very 
cautiously and all at once I saw the 
bear; and where do you suppose he 
was? Neither up a tree or on the 
ground, but upon a big log walking 
back and forth and every now and then 
The lever of the gun went down but the cartridge failed to come up 
