, 1877-06-29
Bear Hunting in ShOkan.

A well-constituted Catskill Ursus A,neri-
cdHuS has about as good time as any ami
NAL know of. He has magnificent coun-
try toroam through, there are not too many
other bears to divide the spoils with, the
climate is not too hot in midsummer, and
in midwinter he can curl up in some snug
retreat, suck his paws, and sleep till YER
nal mildness calls him forth to new wan
derings. He is not bothered with many
visitors-barring the hunter and his
hounds. If l could not be butterfly,
should like to be bear. 1t amounts in
the end chiefly to choice between being
caught in a trap and perforated by a rifle
ball, or captured in a silken net aud
bayoneted with pin.
The bear is born in February usually
with a single twin brother or sister,, in
some cave or hollow under the roots of
tree, where his mother has ''holed up" in
a state of partial Information when the
first heavy SHOWS came, and the cold
froze up the spring-holes. The old bears
go into those winter caves excessively
fat, and seem so when they come out /;
but their long fast aud the nursing of
bhO yOhbS oOOu AGduCC IuGul, So lLdl
they 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 fre-
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, ap-
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
aginable work. The mountains are
rugged and steep in the extreme, COW
cred with forests which are choked with
dense underground of huckleberries and
briers, while fallen trees, rugged detached
rocks, and 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 a rifle, and other
''fxin's," and is trying to beep up with
the excited dogs, the undertaking requires
a man of steel. When a 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 and pertinacious
tOrmentor until the hunter comes up and
can shoot A large dog will attack the
bear boldly, and hold on until he is
hugged 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
in the end is a doubtful one. You are
sure, however, of sine testing chase and
nerve-testing struggle at the end. If an
enraged bear is not pleasant fellow to
meet on his native hills, a 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 vIfe) 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 a pro-
voking accident, such as stupid dogs
stopping to tree a porcupine, entirely
losing track of the nobler game, to the
vexatiOn of the breathless hunter, who
rushes up, convinced from the dogs
racket that a whole den of bears awaits
his conquest.-HGrp0r's Magazine.
"THE baby has got a new tooth, but