The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-03-07

voted to them. P1geon shooting In th'
woods is peculiar sport, for the hun
ter has TO trust entirely to his eye ano
ear. Moving slowly and silently through
the dense forest, the pigeons mOurnfu
cry is ut length heard. You stop ant
listen. and when the bird again utter'
his note you carefully trace him to hi'
tree, usually finding him sitting on
bare branch near the top, wholly uncon
scious of danger. The woods resouno
with the discharge of your fowling- piece
and down tumbles the game. A rest Il
then necessary, in order that the
pigeons may recover from their mo
mentary fright, when off the party star
again. The proceeding makes pigeon
shooting rather exciting, and IN sucl
wild woods as | have described n ful
bag is generally the result.
We started after pigeons the next day
directly after breakfast, of course armed
only with shot guns. Francois, how
ever, insisted on taking his rifle, and hC
put in his pocket handful of old Brown
Bess bullets, proceeding that proved
quite providential before the day was
over. The birds we're plenty, and om
noon: so n halt was called for lunch,
preparatory to our return to camp. Our
rendezvous was at the base OF huge
pile of rocks that cropped out of the
ground in weird confusion, being doubt
less an upheaval of granite formation
that underlies the whole region. Though
we were in the vary heart of the woods,
the trees in the vicinity were stunted,
showing that the soil was shallow. Still
it was n beautiful spot for our purpose,
and Francois soon had fire blazing,
Antoine meantime cleaning few of the
pigeons for the spit. Our appetites
were naturally sharp SET and the meal
proved n famous one. The cracking
pine-knot fire glowed in a crevice OF
the rocks, and we were III the full en-
ioyment Of roast pigeon, when we were
all strrtled by hoarse growl i'll our
rear.
" Dcs CURSES The bears the
bears - shouted Francois, rs we all
leaped instructive To our feet.
Bears it was, sure enough, for coming
down upon us were four of the uncouth
brutes scrambling over the rocks in evil
IDENTIFY an angry mood. 1t was our fire
that had done the mischief. Built III a
crevice, as it had been, some OF the
smoke must have been driven by an air
current into some sort of subterranean
cavern, which formed the den of the
bears. They had, no doubt, been
smoked out by our fire, and were conse-
quently fierce in their blind rage. 1t
was decidedly an unpleasant predica
ment, four bears opposed to five men,
one Of them wholly marmed, for An
tome had carried our provend6r.
To the trees get behind a tree y
cried the two guides, nimbly setting the
example as they spoke. The Major and
the Captain followed suit, while [ start
ed off to the left, a proceeding that near
ly cost me my life. The suddenness of
the alarm, and the unexpected sight of
the bears in such close proximity COM
pletely unsettled my nerves, so that /
scarcely knew what | was doing. To
the horror of my more experienced COM
panions, / suddenly paused in my head
long flight, and emptied both of my bar
rels right into the face of huge brute
that had evidently selected my unlucky
self as its prize OF course the hail of
small shot only added to her rage, for it
was the mother of the family, though
she was in no way disabled ; SO there /
was, face to face to the animal, with an
empty gun in my hand and utterly help
less, for my, companions could render
me no immediate aid, having their
hands full in looking after the other
bears.
Francois opened the battle by firing at
the father of the. group, and succeeded
in rolling him over. He had previously
handed the two officers some of his
round bullets, and they loaded rapidly,
succeeding between them i'll killing one
of the cubs, leaving his companion to
be attended to by Francois, while they
ran TO my assistance, which | needed
sorely. | had, unfortunately, run too
far away from Francois TO receive my
quota of the bullets, and even if L had
them, il is doubtful if L could have made
them available. When | so recklessly
scattered my pigeon-shot i'll the face of
the she bear | turned and ran for the
nearest tree 1t proved to be mere
sapling compared with the others, so |
at once started for another and stouter
stem, hoping to gain 1t in time to avoid
my pursuer.
Alas my foot caught in projecting
root, and down | went on all tours. In
a moment | felt the bear seize me in
terrific hug, her hind feet tearing away
in an awful manner at my stout leather
leggings. 1t was a terrific moment, for
death seemed imminent, while the re-
ports of my companions guns rung in
my ears with singular distinctness. The
pain OF the bears hug was n suffocating
one, and | could feel her huge claws
Juggling at my legs until it seemed rs if
the flesh was being torn away in masses.
| had lost my gun when | fell, and was
without knife or other weapon-a lesson
in woodcraft ! have never forgotten-so
it was impossible to fight the brute, ex-
cept to wildly pound at her eyes with
my fists as she endeavored to bite me-a
feat she unsuccessfully attempted two
Or three times.
Just then the Captain and the Major
ran up, but found themselves unable TO
Use their guns for fear of hurting me, SO
hey did the next best thing, and began
the snarling brute on her
in hopes of inducing her to
change front, as they termed it. These
Efforts failed, however, to produce the