The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-11-01
BEARS AND BEAR HUNTERS.

Mhere the Black Bear Feeds Wild
( Honey and PiRs-How He is Hunted and
Trapped.
In the extensive swamps of Wayne
and Pike counties, Pa, and Sullivan and
Delawaie, N. Y, the black bear, even at
this late day, roams and rears its young
IN security almost as undisturbed as it
uid a century ago, and finds in the out
lying areas of beech and oak forests as
ample supply of food. The hunting and
trapping of these animals furnishes both
pleasure and profit to many of the back
woods inhabitants, hundreds being cap
tured every year. Their skins and meat
command ready sale. The skins bring
from $15 to S25, and the meat sells for
twenty cents pound. The hunter
realizes from $50 to $50 on full-glown
bear. The principal bear hunters in the
Pike county region are the Skaters and
Quicks. They live in the depths of the
woods, seventeen miles from this place.
Plnchot Swamp, Balsam Swamp, Indian
Swamp, Maple Swamp, and Hemlock
Swamp are great bear Eaunts. Jo,as
Shaffer, the youngest member of the
former family, was at Lackawaxen, Pa,
few days ago after some supplies, and
New York Sun correspondent cleaned
some interesting particulars from him
Ill regard to bears and their habits. He
said
''Nex' to bee tree, bear likes to run
foul of a yaller-iacket or hornetw workin'
in the woods. He'll prance round till
he finds the hole the yaller bee goes
into, r the hornets nest on tree r
stuck fas' to rock. Then they's fun.
In about three jerks bear'll turn yll-
ler-jacket's nest wrong side out. Two r
three digs with his paw unllivers It. The
little yaller reptiles fight like fury, and
sometimes kiver the bear till he looks
'sif he had mustard spread all over him.
But the bear shets his eyes an kird o.
grins, an licks the honey out s clean s
yer old woman'd wash a platter. An
all the time he smacks his chops an
don't pay any more 'tention to the bees
tn II theT was so mauy straws a-ticklin'
OF him. L shot a big bear onct which
was goin' through yaller-iacket's nest
over nigh Injin swamp, n killed him
dead. If I'd only wooded him, an he'd
showed fight, I'd tackled him, O
course. But there he laid dead, and if
them little scamps didn't scare me out;
an l was 'fraid to go an skin my dead
bear till they made up their minds to
quit an dig out.
"But it's more fun to see bear git at
hornets nest. One O. these II be's
big s a half bushel sometimes, an r
genrly stuck into rock + in tree mos
always o. reach O. everything. But when
bear claps his eye on hornets nest
you see q smart critter. If it's on the
rocks, he climbs up till he stands on the
edge O. the ledge above it. Then he
kicks big stones n pieces o. wood down
at it till one hits it, an off it goes, fol-
lowed by million or so O the maddest
hornets t ever got on their ear. Mebbe
you don't know't, but mad hornet amt
takln' q back seat for anything that
prowls the woods. When one o. their
nests is kerfiummixed like this, they
seemed to know who done it, an they
wait for the bear to come OH. He amt
long comm. Then the hornets go for
him but he don't care. Sometimes
he'll get up on his hind legs and square
off at the hornets with his paws an
strike out as if he were boxin'. All the
time they's a goin' ON his face, and he
Keeps his eyes shet. Often he'll lay
down an roll on the nest, s if he wanted
to tease the hornets more an seen
big she bear onct take up nest she had
stoned down, put it under one o. her
arms, and prance off with it s if t was
good joke on the hornets. One mad
hornet L guess could kill the biggest OK
t ever stood, but hull nest of 'em never
raised lump s big s buckshOt ON a
bear. When hornets nest 5 in tree,
an the bear can't reach it with his paws
+ long stick, he'll git up on the limb
and dance on it till the nest comes down.
&C But bee trees is the faveryte prov
ender of bear The best bee hunter
t ever burnt honey can't line bee tree
any certainer than bear, n when bear
gifts scent O one he don't give t up till
he finds it. Then up the tree he goes,
givin' t a whack ev'ry now an then to
find out where the holler place is. When
he comes to it he cuts q hole with his
sharp claws au' faint long fore he's
lunchin' n wild honey.
According to Jonas Shaffer n bear will
often lead the hunters a chase of twenty
miles through the swamps, and they
have been known to keep on for fifty
or sixty miles before being brought to
bay.
bears are trapped. Ed. Quick is the
Liooo otcCeooi't' De"r tripper III tne |otate.
He builds pen where he finds signs of
bear, closed on three sides, and in it
places his traps. These traps are like
steel rat trap, only many times larger,
the jaws being armed with long, sharp
teeth. When the trapper sets it he
covers it up with moss, except ON the
broad pan. Meat or honey is placed in
the pen, in such position that to get at
it the bear must step with one of his feet
on the pan of the trap. Instantly it is
sprung, and the ponderous jaws come
together, the teeth sinking deep into the
bones and flesh of the poor animal. To
the trap strong chain is attached. A
good-sized tree is felled the branches
are cut off to within foot OF so of the
trunk, leaving that much of them pro-
jecting. To this tree the other end of
the chain is fastened. When the bear
finds himself in the trap. he starts off
with it, dragging the fallen tree with
him. The stubs of the several branches
pillow into the ground, and SO harass
the progress of the bear that he soon
exhausts himself and becomes an easy
prey to the trapper when he makes his
rounds. Frequently the bear will work
at his paw or leg until he sewers it, leav-
ing his foot in the trap and escaping on
three legs. Now and then it happens
that these crippled bears are caught