The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-06-21
Bear-Hunting in ShOkan.


A well-constituted Catskill Ursus amer,
canus has about as good time as any ami
NAL know of. He has a magnificent conn
try to roam through, there are not too man
other bears to divide the spoils with, tn
climate is not too hot in midsummer, an,
in midwinter he can curl up in some snu,
retreat, suck his paws, and sleep till yer
nal mildness calls him forth to new wan
derings. He is not bothered with man.
misunderstanding the hunter and hi
hounds. If l could not be butterfly,
should like to be bear. 1t amounts il
the end chiefly to a choice between being
caught in trap and perforated by rifle
bali. or captured in a silken net anO
bayoneted with a pin.
The bear is born in February Casually
with single twin brother or sister,, In
some cave or hollow under the roots of q
tree, where his mother has "holed up" in
state of partial Information when the
first heavy SHOWS came, and the cold
froze up the spring-holes. The old bears
90 into those winter caves excessively
fat. and seem so when they come out
but their long fast and the nursing OF
the young soon reduce them, so that
thew often have hard rub to keep alive
if the spring is slow and their diet OF
roots and bulbs is held tightly locked
by late frosts. At such times they fire.
quently become very bold, making re-
peated attacks upon the farmers sheep
and calves. Enos Brown last spring had
five sheep taken off in rapid succession.
He therefore stopped his farm work, APP
piled himself to trapping, and soon five
Dear-skins graced his shanty's walls.
His sheep were avenged. During the
spring and early summer the bears live
by their wits-rather poorly--and are
little hunted. They are shedding their
hair, so that the fur is not in good
plight, their flesh is lean, and their young
accompany them about the woods. The
time to begin to hunt them is when the
woodland berries begin to ripen.
In the late autumn bears are also
hunted with dogs, and although the sport
is very exciting, it is the hardest i'm
aginabe work. The mountains are
rugged and steep in the extreme, COW
cred with forests which are choked with a
dense underground of huckleberries and
briers, while fallen trees, rugged detached
rocks,an deep swampy gullies obstruct
the way. To work ones way through this
tangle is not easy at the best, and when
one is hampered by rifle, and other
"fxin's," and is trying to beep up with
the excited dogs, the undertaking requires
a man of steel. When bear finds itself
pursued it takes off up the steepest,
most inaccessible places, and over the
very loftiest points in the whole region,
keeps on from peak to peak across the
worst ravines and through the deDsest
Jungles, fully aware that thus it will
soonest exhaust its pursuer, and thus es-
capes, if at all, through its superior en-
durance. The hunter, knowing this, fol-
lows as best he can with one or two tough
little dogs, mere whiffets, which dash up
and nip the bear behind. When Bruin
turns around in amazement and indigna-
ton, the little dog is not there, but re.
turns the instant the bear starts on, and
thus worries it into stopping and attempt
ing to fight its minute aud pertinacious
tormentor until the hunter comes up and
can shoot. A large dog will attack the
bear boldly, and hold on until he is
Rugged to death-the speedy and almost
inevitable result of his incautious cour-
age. A bear hunt of this kind is full of
adventure and fascination for the sports
man, yet the chance of getting the bear
10 the end is doubtful one. You are
sure, however, of sinew- testing chase and
nerve-iesting struggle at the end. If an
enraged bear is not q pleasant fellow to
meet on his native hills, wounded one
is still less SO, and the hunter must be
self-possessed and agile to escape the for
midable antagonist that has failed to fall
at his first shot. Enos Brown tells story
Of an adventure Of this kind he and his
woman (Shokanites never say wife) had
when a very large bear submitted to be
shot in the head, Strengthened out with
his head down hill, and have his throat
cut, and then suddenly revived, and made
exceedingly lively and sanguinary work
for the Brown family before consenting
to yield up the ursine ghost. Sometimes,
moreover, bear is lost through pro-
voking accident such AS stupid dogs
stopping 10 tree a porcupine, entirely
losing track of the nober game, to the
vexation of the bresthless hunter, who
PUSHES up, convinced from the dogs
racket that q whole den Of bears awaits
his conquest.-Harper's Magazine.