'<r 
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I enclose $1.00 for which enter the following name 
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FOR CLASSIFIED AD PAGES 
SEE PAGES 633 AND 634 
WILDFOWL GUNS 
Our 12-BORE MAGNUMS shooting 3-in. 
Paper Shells ( iy 2 ozs. shot) have an ef¬ 
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Send for particulars to 
G. E. LEWIS & SONS 
32 & 33, Lower Loveday Street, 
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND. 
Established 850 
wet muck in front of the trap. The 
trap had rusted badly, and the pan had 
not gone down as it should when the 
bear stepped on it, so I sprang the 
trap, scraped off the rust with my 
knife, and oiled it from a small can of 
coon oil I carried in my pack. I had 
intended to reset the trap in the same 
place, using the porcupine I had left 
hung in a tree. When I went to look 
for this porcy, I found a bear had 
climbed the tree and taken the porcy, 
leaving neither quill nor hair to show 
where it had gone. This changed my 
plans, so I left the trap unset and 
started over along the hogback to the 
last trap set there. Here I found many 
new signs. About every three hundred 
yards or so I found trees with fresh 
claw and teeth marks on them, with 
the pitch still oozing from the torn 
bark. My trap was set right in the 
middle of his hogback, and the fresh 
trail was headed right along this ridge. 
As I drew nearer the trap, I had a 
feeling I would find another bear in it, 
and from all signs, it would be a lot 
larger than the first one I had trapped. 
The teeth marks on the trees were 
higher than my face, and I stand near¬ 
ly six feet high. I regretted I had not 
brought along the 32 carbine, for I 
had only a Colt 22 automatic. I came 
to the pen and peered in, but the trap 
was gone. Gone also was the honey; 
but trap drag and bait were gone as if 
by magic, for not a stick or a leaf 
seemed to be disturbed. I looked around 
in every direction, but could not find 
where the drag had torn up the ground. 
Finally, looking off down into the 
swamp, I caught sight of the broken 
top of a spruce tree, showing up white 
against the green background of the 
other trees. That was something out 
of the ordinary, as we had had no 
storms since I set the trap, so I went 
down to investigate. There I found 
the story of my bear written very 
plainly on the ground and in the tree. 
The trap and drag lay just one side of 
the tree, and the jaws of the trap were 
sprung. Alongside of the trap lay the 
top of the tree about ten feet long and 
three inches in diameter at the big end. 
The bear had climbed the tree with the 
trap and drag and had jumped out 
when about twelve feet up, trying to 
free himself from the trap. The trap 
had caught around the slim trunk of 
the tree and the weight of the bear had 
released his claw and also broken off 
the top of the tree. The tree was 
clawed the whole length and the 
ground under it was all torn up. I 
had arrived about two days too late. 
This is not an unusual means for a 
bear to free himself from a trap. I 
have heard of two or three other in¬ 
cidents very much the same as this 
one. However, a bear can only climb 
a tree when he is caught by a hind 
paw instead of a front paw, and also 
only when the drag is such that he can 
pick it up and carry it. As subsequent 
events proved, this bear was caught 
by one claw on the left hind paw. The 
drag had been too light, and I realized 
this when I set the trap, but as there 
were no other hardwood trees avail¬ 
able, I took the chance of using the 
small hardwood drag instead of cutting 
a soft wood, as a bear will tear a soft 
wood drag to pieces in a short while. 
After cutting the trap free from the 
drag, I left it on a stump on the ridge 
and went back to the set on the ledge, 
where the trap was without any bait. 
Going along the edge of the pond, I 
came to a clump of hemlock trees. 
Here was a good place to eat my lunch, 
so I sat down, with my back against a 
big tree, and proceeded to get out my 
lunch from the pack. After I finished 
lunch, I sat smoking my pipe, wonder¬ 
ing how and where I was going to get 
bait for my last “set.” Luck was with 
me, for while I sat smoking quietly 
under the big hemlock, I heard the 
grating of a hedgehog’s teeth. I sat 
perfectly still, and pretty soon a piece 
of bark came sailing down from over 
my head. Getting up, I saw two big 
porcupines up in the hemlock tree, 
feeding on the bark and new branches. 
They had evidently been feeding in the 
hemlock grove all winter, for almost 
every tree was girdled. I was in luck, 
and very shortly was pushing on to my 
last trap with two fat and very smelly 
porcupines in my pack basket. 
I had decided that if I caught this 
big bear, it would have to be in an 
open set, for I knew I could never get 
him to go into a pen again after his 
last experience. So I moved the trap 
up under the two little spruces where 
the bear had taken the deer carcass 
and also the porcy. With some raw- 
hide I had in my pack, I carefully tied 
a porcupine high up in each spruce, 
about ten feet from the ground, and 
set the trap in the opening between 
the two trees. Knowing the habits of 
the bear—that they will not break 
sticks or make any unnecessary noises, 
I piled a lot of dry tree tops and 
branches around the two trees, leaving 
only one opening where the bear could 
approach the trap without breaking 
twigs and making a lot of noise. After 
the trap was set and covered with moss 
and a few leaves, the last thing I did 
was to take my hunting knife and rip 
open both porcupines so the fresh 
blood sprinkled down all over the trap 
and ground. 
A few days later, Bud and I took the 
one o’clock morning train from Utica 
for the North woods. We had break¬ 
fast at the little cabin on the stream 
at six o’clock, and were up to the 
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Page 728 
