Trapping Adventures. 
At the end of the season we were taking the 
bait from our bear traps, fur being out of sea¬ 
son after the middle of April and some speci¬ 
mens long before, but bears are in good fur 
until June i or io, according to the season. We 
had removed the bait from all our traps except 
two that were on the further side of a river, 
which we crossed on a fallen tree. 
When half way over Tiger tried to go by me, 
almost hurling me from the narrow bridge. I 
managed to force him back and looking toward 
the trap I saw it was down, and also noticed 
a black object beside it. Tiger made the second 
attempt to go by, so I pushed him from the log 
into the river. He made good headway in spite 
of the strong current, reached the bank and was 
into the trap just as I reached it and bounded out 
with a cub bear about the size of a fox. We 
managed to break his hold on the cub, and it 
went up a tree close by. I looked into the trap 
and there was the second cub. Fred held the 
dog, while 1 went in and kicked the cub out. It 
made for a tree in the opposite direction from 
its brother’s perch. Tiger broke away and caught 
the cub, giving it a bad shaking up before we 
could reach him. The old bear had been caught 
by the head and killed instantly. 
We removed the bear from the trap,- skinned 
her, and as we were coming back that way after 
looking at our other trap, we put the skin on 
the branch of a tree a few feet from the ground. 
Our other trap was three miles distant and we 
hurried away to look at it and return home. On 
coming within 150 yards of the trap I noticed it 
was down. Tiger began to act uneasy, so Fred 
took him in charge. I saw a movement through 
the underbrush, so thought it was another female 
bear with her cubs beside her, but I found a 
male two-year-old, and one of the finest speci¬ 
mens I ever saw, caught by the hind leg, he hav¬ 
ing gone in the trap entirely except one leg. 
The trap was chewed almost down, but none 
of the ballast had been removed. I walked 
around the trap and saw that the bear was held 
securely, so told Fred to let Tiger go. Tiger 
gave a howl of'joy and made for bruin’s throat 
in an instant, but he did not handle him so easy. 
Bruin would strike him with his fore paws, and 
when he would break Tiger’s hold, he would take 
him by the shoulders, draw him up and get a 
good bite at his head before Tiger could set his 
teeth on his throat again. It was very exciting 
for a time. We did not want to have the dog 
hurt, so pulled him away, and Fred sat on him 
while I shot the bear. 
We skinned bruin and started for home. On 
coming to where we had the bear skin hanging 
on the tree, we found the cubs had come down 
and pulled it on the ground and were both up 
another tree close by. There was but two 
dollars bounty on bear in this county, and as 
their pelts were not worth anything, we did not 
deem it worth killing them. There was a county 
line about a mile distant. There, $8 bounty was 
paid. It would have been an easy matter for 
one man to carry them both across the line and 
kill them there, but as it would have been taking 
an unfair advantage of the county, we let them 
go unharmed. We made a mistake by not mark¬ 
ing them so as to know if we ever caught them 
afterward. They were able to support them¬ 
selves, but had nursed the mother after she had 
been killed. 
uncle luice’s bear story. 
I was not an eye witness to the events re¬ 
ferred to in the following narrative, but it was 
BARN OWL, FIVE WEEKS OLD. 
related to me by both parties concerned, and I 
can safely vouch for its truth. 
Uncle Luke had not a niece or nephew in 
the county that I knew of, still everyone called 
him Uncle Luke, perhaps on account of his giant 
form, for he was a large powerful man, stand¬ 
ing six feet four inches, and with such broad 
shoulders that he could hardly pass through a 
common doorway. Luke was a lumber contrac¬ 
tor for a Canadian firm and somewhat of a 
hunter, always ready and willing to have a scrap 
with anything that prowled about the Canadian 
forest. 
At the time of which I write he had grown 
old, his hands being disabled with rheumatism, 
and his once stately figure bent and feeble. 
On this particular day Luke with one of his 
employers was in search of patches of timber. 
Luke carried a light hand axe, Bill a single 
barrel muzzle-loading shotgun charged with No. 
6 shot for the purpose of shooting rabbits. 
Luke and Bill came to a bear den under a rock 
about twelve feet down. They could see the bed 
of leaves banked high, closing bruin in entirely. 
Bill was a rather timid man, so he moved away 
as soon as he discovered bruin was present, but 
Luke went down on hands and knees and peeped 
into the den. 
As soon as bruin found he was discovered he 
tried to make his escape, but the hole was small 
and he had to come up the perpendicular bank. 
Luke sprang to where Bill stood, seized the gun 
and fired into the hole, but missed his mark, the 
whole charge of shot passing over bruin’s back. 
Luke then threw the gun toward Bill and picked 
up his axe. The bear which had fallen back 
into the den when Luke fired was now making 
his exit again. As he came to the top of the 
hole Luke tapped him on the head as hard as 
he could, but a child could have done as well. 
However, the blow knocked bruin back into the 
den. Again he came to the top to be knocked 
back from another light tap from Uncle Luke. 
The third time he came up showing his teeth. 
Luke made a desperate blow at him, but bruin 
was too quick. He ducked into the den and 
Luke’s axe slipped down into the den. He fell 
across the doorway on his stomach and would 
have fallen into the den had it been large enough 
to admit him. Springing to his feet he ran to 
Bill, and seizing him roughly by the shoulder, 
asked him to jump down in the hole and get the 
axe, but Bill declined. 
Luke then noticed that the bear was almost 
out of the hole, sprang back, clinched the bear 
and threw him back, but he came up again and 
was again thrown back. 
By this time the bear was desperate. He came 
out of the den with open mouth, but he could 
not scare Luke, who once more tried to force 
him back, but the bear gave Luke one slap with 
his powerful paw, knocking him down, then 
walked slowly toward the swamp and was out 
of sight before Luke could regain his feet. 
The black bear is a harmless creature if not 
annoyed, but on such occasions he is dangerous, 
especially when wounded or when they have their 
young. 
WILDCAT ADVENTURES. 
The wildcat is another unpleasant animal to 
deal with at close quarters, being very savage 
and active, their sharp claws offering great ser¬ 
vice, but a wildcat, like the bear, will always 
escape quietly if possible. Tiger was always 
ready for a fight with the active cats, and in 
spite of their sharp claws and teeth he could 
soon overpower them, but not without receiving 
a few wounds. 
One day I had in a steel trap by two toes a 
wildcat of tremendous size. Fred held the dog 
while I went toward the cat with a club to kill 
it 1 raised my stick and brought it down for 
the head, but a bough overhead caught it, threw 
