The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-10-30
BEAR SHOOTING In CANADA.


and we're plentiful'y instsrspersed
With windfalis, lying bresst-higa on
rotten branches, and forming an ad-
mirablei natural abstis against our
advancing column of two armed with
axes and shotgun. 5 &c
George moves on like q shadow
lstraight for the squirrel that still chat
tiers and scolds and swsars from the
depths OF the cedar jungle. l veer to
the right. We worm ourselves be-
tween the thicki trunks. and under
the thicker branches. go
| A low "6hl" catches my ear. I
turn toward George. "Here he isl'
zig written all over his face. He points
directly ahead, then shakes his axe,
land points and points again.
1 I lock, stretch up and look, crouch
down and look, but see nothing but
1.-THE tree-tfunks. @fs
| George grows in patient. He
thinks ] don't understand him.
sLe voici Here be is!" he
Kisses. But Bruin hears az we'll az
I. P''Noa Ie cola. There he soesI''
I hear whine and grunt that re-
mind me of menagerie, and through
the thick cedar trunks and the dead
branches of fallen pine catch a
fitting glimpse of shambling black
gness. - *
| I FIRE a snap shot, as I woald at q
Woodcock darting through the alder
tops. The smoke hangs under the
thick branches, and shuts ont all be-
fore me. T.s.- g. o-
"He's DOWN. q Moas l'roasl" yells
George. The report of the gun has
broken the spell OF the forest silence,
and George changes from serpent
to tiger. et
''No." be cries; shes eff again.
Fire"
I fire my left barrel through the
lsmoke with "eys Ct faith" and
examining in a couple of fresh car
tridges, George and Irush on, if any
mode of progress through q tangled
cedar swamp can. be called a rush.
We kick and wrest of the dry dead
branches. scramble over the fallen
pine. but the bear! Nowhere q sign
of him. Nothing but forest and
Isilenoe. ts:h|ol-.-s sr8c,
George keeps on; 1 do my best to
follow. he glides along like cat
lin one hand an uplifted axe, de-
scending now and then to sever an
Opposing bough. He gets over the
ground TWO feet to my one.
s'Le roila, qui sen "a! There ne
goes againI Henez! Come ou!" cries
George; and 1 perform the speediest
coming on of which l am capable.
Slow enough it is, though. Every
few steps the tangled branches of q
fallen cedar must be burst through,
but on I press and scramble and
tumble and crawl till George is
reached. He stands on PROSTATE
tree, axe appraised, head bent forward
and, to one side-sn admirable statue
OF alertness. - 1888
''Ecoutez! Lis!enr" he whispers.
A moments stiffness. Then q
cracking, loud and near, up the hill
side. George Jumps through the
Ithicket, and springs up the slope Ike
q fash .r-s, qf rsl
Follow him? / could as easily fit
up to heaven without wings. So I
scramble on through the level swamp.
1t is said "blood will tell" I can
Iswear that weight will. The burden
LOT my two, hundred pounds hardicap-
kped me in this, swamp. race with q
bear. Every thicket I crawled
through, every windfall scrambled
over, told on me, till at last I was
forced to halt. With peTspiratioR
jbursting from every pore. and breath
lonly caught in gasps, I leaned
Iagainst a tree. and imagined the
feelings of the losing horse in q race.
| My heart beat loudly at the drum
ming ofa partridge, the whole forest
seemed to reverberste with its quick
lthud, thud, -thud, and the ,5lQ9s
lesped to head and temples till my
brain was in q Whirl.
While the trees were dancing before
my Keeling sight I thought, "Wbst
an unlucky wight am II After
twenty years of small! game shooting.
to at last actually meet a bear in his
haunts in the forest, get within thirty
yards OF him, on the point Of crafty
j ing one of the pet ambitions Of my
life and then to bang away a couple
of shots like fool with the buck
ague, while my noble quarry coolly
makes of, and I am left empty
haLded!'
Worse than that. the brute runs
away 60 slowly that George sees him
again and again-keeps up with him,
in fact. Alas, my "too, too solid
fesh!' Were 7 light, nimble fellow
like George, I might have ehet q bear
yes, half.dozen times over. And
then my gun. What fool, to bring
q little snipe-gun into the woods in
quest of the king OF the forests, the
BEST before which all others quail
from the Atlantic to the Mississippi,
ami then to FIRE away at this lordly
game as would pull the trigger on a
i woodcoekI, One bird missed, up hips
another. But where shall find an
other bear, when I have been all my
life getting up with this first one?
Then. If I had only shot him, what