Sept. 22, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
457 
Length on outside curve, 44% inches. Circumference at 
base, taken at right angle to axis of horn with top drawn 
tight, 14 inches. Tip to tip, 21 inches.—Boone and 
Crockett Game Book. 
Length on inside curve, 31% inches. Circumference 
above burr, 6% inches. Tip to tip, 29 inches. Greatest 
width, 50 inches. Breadth of palm, 14 inches. Number 
of points, 12 -T 12. 
A Forgotten Hunter’s Mecca. 
Stories of the Bear, Deer and Wolf. 
Being a pioneer of the second coming in the 
great ‘‘Ohio country,” then thought to be in the 
‘‘far west,” the writer as a youth spent most of 
his younger days in roaming through the great 
forests with dog and gun. 
The firearms of those days had not approached 
the degree of perfection that they have attained 
in these latter days. The gun then in use was 
the long-barreled muzzleloading, flint-locked, 
Kentucky rifle, the wooden stock of which 
reached to within an inch of the muzzle. The 
fire pans of those rifles always required priming. 
Many times the priming would shake out and 
the gun was then harmless until re-primed. Thus 
it often came about that the gun was "dead" • 
when needed most. Many times the flint would 
fail to strike fire, no explosion would follow. A 
good hunter always looked well to flints and 
priming. 
Game was abundant in those early days. Bear, 
deer, bison and wild turkeys were to be found 
in immense numbers, for this was then the hun¬ 
ter’s Mecca. As late as 1830 to 1840 game and 
fish were still abundant, an occasional bear was 
to be found. Deer yet roamed the forests; wild 
turkeys and pheasants were Still to be found in 
large numbers, while squirrels and quail were 
thick in the woods and fields. In the fall of the , 
year immense flocks of the passenger wild pig¬ 
eons flew westward in the mornings, and east¬ 
ward at night. For three or four hours in the 
morning these great flocks, containing milions of 
birds, flew westward to feed upon the mast of 
the beech woods, where the three cornered beech 
nuts lay thick and black under the trees. These 
flocks reached northward and southward as far 
as the eye could reach. Flock would follow flock 
in serried ranks for hours at a time. Trapping 
pigeons in those days was a profitable business, 
and was much resorted to. The live birds were 
shipped to the eastern markets and brought good 
prices. Panthers, black bears and wolves were 
sufficiently plenty. The panther, though some¬ 
times extremely ferocious, at other times seemed 
comparatively tame. One day, while traveling on 
the banks of a small stream, a panther was dis¬ 
covered resting among the limbs of a tree. He 
was a large fellow, but he seemed quiet and 
made no overt act of menace. 
As Captain David Pratt was one day looking 
for his cows in the woods, his attention was 
attracted by the furious barking of his dog at 
the base of a large tree. Carefully advancing 
he discovered a large catamount reposing on the 
very limb under which he was standing. The 
animal’s eyes were green and glaring, and his 
sinewy legs were gathered for a spring. Quick 
as thought the Captain leveled his rifle, fired, and 
the "painter” came tumbling down. It measured 
nine feet from tip to tip. 
I am persuaded that the black bear is naturally 
a timid animal, though under the influence of 
hunger he becomes bold, and in self defense, or, 
if a female, in defending her young, are very 
ferocious. I have often, while walking in the 
forest, seen bruin emerge in the path 1 was pur¬ 
suing, and cantering up the hill before me dis¬ 
appear in the woods as timid as a hare. 
John Holdren and John Jones killed forty-six 
bears in six weeks’ time. Sometimes in the tall 
season they killed forty or fifty deer for their 
winter supply, and turkeys beyond computation. 
Holdren killed four deer in a single day, and 
he and two of his boys, in a hunt of two weeks, 
killed thirty deer. 
O11 one hunting expedition, he shot and 
wounded a black bear. His dog ran in to seize 
the bear, but bruin, though hurt, thought himself 
a match for any dog, and the dog soon dis¬ 
covered that he had caught a tartar. The animal 
though wounded was yet vigorous, and he was 
making a record as a dog killer. Holdren thought 
it was about time for him to interfere. Draw¬ 
ing his knife he prepared to carve up the bear; 
but the bear was as ready for the man as he 
had been for the dog. Bruin at once released 
the dog and prepared to pay his attention to 
the man. The first grab he made for Holdren he 
tore the man’s blanket, in which he was dressed, 
completely off of him. Holdren then plunged his 
knife in the bear, clear to the hilt, then becom¬ 
ing frightened, he did not attemot to pull it out, 
but thinking that discretion in this case, at least, 
was the better part of valor, he turned to run, 
and—kept on running. The man escaped the 
bear, and the bear escaped the man, so they 
were quits. Holdren afterwards said that it was 
the closest squeak he had ever got into, but that 
early in the fray he had made up his mind that 
a live iackass was worth more to his family than 
a dead hero. 
On another occasion Josiah True and Cyrus 
Tuttle drove a bear into a cave. After consider¬ 
able skirmishing around, they succeeded in shoot¬ 
ing the animal in a narrow passage way of the 
cave, and having fastened a hickory withe to his 
nose, were about to drag him out. True en¬ 
tered the cave, crawled over it, and got behind 
to assist in the moving. Suddenly there was a 
change in the programme. Bear number two put 
in an appearance. The men had been ignorant of 
the fact that twice one was two, and the first 
intimation they had of the presence of number 
two was when he came rushing out from the rear 
of the cavern. It was hard to say which was 
the most frightened, the bear or the man. How¬ 
ever, they did not stop to discuss the question, 
and the bear at once mounted on True’s back, 
crushing him face downwards on the floor of the 
cave. Then with a magnified grin, and showing 
a fine set of teeth, bruin made directly for 
Tuttle. The man gave one horrified look and 
then made up his mind that he was wanted else¬ 
where. The bear ran one way and Tuttle another, 
both sprinting in fine shape. 
Mrs. Lottridge, while busy with her evening’s 
work one day, was surprised 'and horrified to see 
a large panther walk cooly in her open door and 
stand before the fire. Her husband’s rifle not 
being in the house, that worthy seized the butcher 
knife and would have attacked the intruder had 
it not been for the tears and entreaties of his 
wife, who afterwards always maintained that her 
screams frightened the animal, as after a few 
moments of quiet observation he darted out of 
the cabin and disappeared in the gathering dusk; 
not the first instance surely of a male being put 
to flight by a woman’s tongue. 
William Sickles killed as many as five deer in 
a single day, and in the autumn killed forty-nine. 
Joseph Bobo and Abram Gabriel also, each killed 
forty-nine, making one hundred and forty-seven 
for three men in one single township. 
Bishop Ames, of Baltimore, himself an early 
Ohio pioneer, related the following story: "In 
1822,” said the reverend divine, “Pit Putnam 
organized a grand wolf hunt to be held on the 
headwaters of Big Run. A space about four 
miles square was surveyed in the heart of the 
forest, and marked all the way around by blaz¬ 
ing the trees. On the appointed day the hunters 
assembled from all directions and were soon 
placed. I was then only sixteen years old, and 
was more highly excited over the affair than I 
am apt to become over any event now-a-days. 
When all was ready, the men stationed, armed, 
etc., a horn was blown by the leader, and the 
signal in a few minutes passed around the whole 
circle, whereupon they all be^an to march toward 
a common center keeping in line. Each man was 
ordered to make as great a hubbub as possible, 
those with horns to blow them, and the rest to 
■ shout and halloo. I was a pretty well grown 
boy of my age, and was allowed to march with 
