136 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 28, 1911. 
Attacked by a Black Bear. 
Linville Falls, N. C., Jan. 16 .—Editor For¬ 
est and Stream: A round dozen black bears 
have fallen victims to the mountaineers’ per¬ 
sistent pursuit with hounds within ten miles 
of this place since the first of October. The 
last one, and the largest killed for some years 
hereabouts, gave the hardest chase I have ever 
heard of here. It was credited with the killing 
of many hogs, and it led the hounds and hunt¬ 
ers for five days and nights, covering a good 
part of the extremely rough country on Grand¬ 
father Mountain and finally returning to its 
original feeding ground near a lumber camp in 
Lost Cove, about eight miles from here. The 
longest-legged of the hunters and the most 
experienced, Stover Wise, finally made a des¬ 
perate effort by climbing across a deep hollow 
and up to a high ridge, where he expected the 
distant dogs would drive the bear. He had 
hardly arrived in sight of the trail the bear 
was taking, when Bruin hove in sight and the 
hunter, quite unusual for a mountainer, being 
armed with a rifle and knowing how to use it, 
got in a shot at about 100 yeards. 
Now comes the most unusual part of the 
story, and did I not know this man to be truth¬ 
ful, I should doubt it, for I have never heard 
of a black bear attacking, or giving any appear¬ 
ance of attacking a man, if he had a chance 
to get away, no matter how badly wounded, 
unless it was a mother defending her young. 
But this bear came straight for the tall moun¬ 
taineer, in the face of the emptying of his 
magazine of nearly all its contents. The bear 
did not stop till he was within twenty feet of 
the man, and was found to have received five 
bullets in his charge, most of them about the 
head and shoulders. Wise says the bear came 
as straight for him as it could and never wav¬ 
ered, though he is not certain whether it was 
simply dazed by the first shot and did not 
know where it was going, or if it really in¬ 
tended to attack him. He has hunted bears 
all his life, as his father has before him, and 
they were both born here. None of the many 
bear hunters here has ever heard of a black 
bear attacking a man. 
I would be glad to hear if anyone knows an 
authentic case of a black bear attacking a man, 
even when wounded, if it had an opportunity 
to run. This bear was an old one and ex¬ 
ceptionally large and powerful. It had used 
up several dogs dui ing the race. 
Frank W. Bicknell. 
[In Forest and Stream of Feb. 8, 1908, there 
was printed an account of the killing of a man 
and the partial devouring of the body by a 
black bear. The statement was sent by J. H. 
Mcllree, of Regina, N. W. T., accompanied by 
the affidavits of two witnesses to the killing 
and of the constable of the Northwest Police, 
who took their statements and saw the body. 
While William Heffern and James Macintosh 
were sawing wood at a lumber camp thirty miles 
from Etiomamie, N. W. T., they saw a black 
bear swim a stream near-by. They called the 
camp cook, T. Wilson, to come out and see 
the bear. While the three men were watching 
it, the bear rushed toward him. They ran to¬ 
ward the cook house but the bear overtook and 
struck Wilson, apparently breaking his neck. 
Then, according to the affidavits, it carried the 
body about fifteen feet. By that time the other 
men were belaboring the bear with such mis¬ 
siles as came to hand, and one of the men se¬ 
cured a revolver and fired ten shots at the 
bear, but the latter continued to retreat with 
the body, finally eating part of it before a man 
with a rifle shot it twice. The bear fell at 
each shot but finally got away. The date given 
was May 17, 1907-—Editor.] 
Wild Geese in Flight. 
Omaha, Neb., Jan. 20 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The very last of autumn’s sights and 
sounds have completely flickered out and we 
are now in the severest throes of winter. Not¬ 
withstanding this the Canada geese and hardy 
mallards have been lingering along the frozen 
Platte 'and the rushing Loup—which seldom 
freezes from shore to shore—ever since the 
fall months closed. The big flock of honkers 
I saw Sunday evening, flying in full chorus, 
bound South, over my home in the village of 
Dundee, unequivocally proclaimed that they 
were fleeing before the threatened storm. Sadly 
other knights of the hammerless may have 
gazed at that baseless triangle drifting athwart 
the lowering skies, and like myself may have 
vainly wished for the power to accompany them 
to regions where ice and cold and sleet are 
rarely seen. The hoarse clamor that fell from 
the flying wedge and filtered through the frosty 
space, vibrated upon the twilight atmosphere 
glorious, sweet and solemn, yet producing a 
longing for the dawn of spring that will bring 
them back again. Yearningly I watched the 
vanishing cohort until they faded away amid 
the gathering shadows in the southern heavens. 
To speculate a bit on the flight of the geese. 
Have you ever tried to fathom the mystery 
why these birds make these long migrating 
journeys in the form of a wedge? How is that 
cleaving triangle maintained through the end¬ 
less vault, of space? Do the two lines of geese, 
the long arms of the wedge, fly straight at the 
indomitable old gander leading the way, or 
does each simply maintain a straight forward 
course irrespective of the position of their pilot 
or the other wing of the wedge? 
My theory is that they proceed plump ahead 
as if in a single string, single file, for if you 
should lop off either line of flying gray in mid¬ 
air, would not the other keep right on its 
straight course behind the leader, or would 
they disintegrate, bunch, or form a horizontal 
line or proceed on in irregular form? 
Every wjldfowl hunter knows that every 
flock of geese has its leader, and in these mi¬ 
grating trips it is always a wise old gander 
that has been over the course many titnes be¬ 
fore and knows the way. 
If the leader dies from natural causes, or is 
killed by hunter or other foes, another is se¬ 
lected to assume command, and the most com¬ 
petent member of the flock is undoubtedly 
chosen, and it would seem for the sole purpose 
of showing the way. 
Many of my old goose hunting friends hold 
to this opinion. They believe that geese shape 
their course by the topography of the country 
beneath them, by the mountain ranges, the long 
level stretches of water and land, by capes and 
promontories and headlands and other land¬ 
marks familiar to the leader, flying in an un¬ 
swerving straight course over land and sea, 
and so high that a migty stretch of country is 
always in view, thus enabling them to hold 
their way with precision and unbroken regu¬ 
larity. 
And yet, this does not really explain the 
wedge-shaped flights. Countless other species 
of birds make these same journeys, many ot 
them traveling without concerted action or sys¬ 
tematic form. Some make these pilgrimages 
over the sea entirely, never more than skirting 
the shores. Among these are the cormorants 
and several varieties of gulls, and while they 
unceasingly keep over the deep, they seldom 
allow the shore to get out of sight, and in¬ 
variably follow its winding way. This route, 
of course, makes them fly hundreds of extra 
miles, but is undoubtedly the secret of their 
finding their way. 
In the blackness of cloudy nights, in heavy 
fogs and blinding storms, you ask, how is it 
then the geese hold their way with such un¬ 
erring certainty? We know that their sight, 
while keen, is not of such phenomenal character 
that they can see under such conditions, and 
yet we do know that they make at least por¬ 
tions of their long journeys under just such 
circumstances, and here is where those who 
claim that it is the instinct of the birds that 
carries them safely through have the best of 
the argument. 
My theory is that instinct is but little relied 
upon, and that it is a pure matter of training 
by the old patriarchs of the tribe, and has 
been from the beginning of time, but what 
about the first flock that ever made the trip , 
from polar regions to tropics, or from the 
latter to the former? Who taught them, you ask? 
That is far-fetched. We might as well inquire 
which was made .first, the hen or the egg, or 
about the origin of any animal life. 
But after all none -of these suggestions ac¬ 
counts for the harrow shaped flight, yet they 
lead up to it. The belief that they travel by 
the guidance of natural landmarks is surely 
tenable, for by this manner of flight each bird 
in both wings of the wedge has as unhampered 
a view of the vast stretch of country beneath 
it, as does the leader. This each bird would 
not have if they followed the leader in a 
straight line, or flew on a horizontal line. 
I do believe that each wing of the harrow 
progresses straight ahead on a course parallel 
with the leader. In this position each bird 
always has the leader in plain view, as well 
as the whole of the passing landscape beneath 
it. Those that have been over the course be¬ 
fore, the older birds, would need no leader, 
as the landmarks impressed upon their memor¬ 
ies by previous trips would be all that was 
required to guide them, and they could make 
the journey alone as well as in the company of 
others. But the spring’s hatch, those that 
had never been over the course, would need 
a leader; in fact, several of them, and the 
wedge-shaped flight is adopted to give them 
the experience the older birds had had by an 
uninterrupted survey of the country in transit. 
These suggestions are interesting and if any¬ 
one is deeply enough versed in bird lore to be 
able to convincingly explain to me the reason 
for and cause of this wedge-shaped flight of 
the wild geese, he will impart a knowledge I 
never expect to acquire. Sandy Griswold. 
