, 1890-02-04
A LEFT HANDED BEAR.
And the Hard Luck of Some PennsyIyania
Hunters' Dogs

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other evening. II didn't exactly tackle
one myself" he added. ''but / saw n
fight two dogs over at the head of
White Oak run last winter, and he
didn't use his right paw once. Me and
Charley Petty put a white bulldog
and a roam hound on the bears track
in about three inches of snow, and the
way they made the woods ring was
music. The white dog took the lead,
and for all of two miles we couldn't
keep up. Then the yelping of the two
grew louder and sharper. We hurried
ahead and found that they had caught
up to a large bear and were worrying
him. The bear tried his best to get
away in the scrub oaks, but the dogs
pressed him SO hard and nipped his
hind legs and hanks so often that he
backed up against a rock and got mad.
He was mighty mad, too, but the dogs
didn't seem to care a snap if he was,
for they both kept pitching at him,
and every time they made a lunge he
brought his left paw down with force
enough to break a cows back. We
might have plugged the bear with bull
lets right there, but the dogs appeared
to enjoy teasing him, and pretty soon
the bulldog made a leap and tried to
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old left paw OF his got in its fine work.
He brought it around sideways this
time. The bulldog failed to grab his
nose, and before he could get out of
the way that awful left paw struck
him on the right jaw and tore the bone
loose. That used up MI. Bulldog, but
the other dog was as brave as a lion,
and he faced the huge paw and got
knocked into the brush, twenty feet
off. The bear didn't try to use his
right paw once, and, when he had
cleaned both dogs out, he waddled off
as cool as you please and we shot him
dead"
81 never met a left handed bear"
said another old Monroe county hun
ter, but l ran across as tough a killer
as your left handed bear was. / was
guiding a party Of city deer shooters
through the Knob mountain district at
the time. On the third day one of the
city fellows got tired of standing on
runaways, and SO he took his setter
and shotgun and went off by himself
after ruffed grouse. l founk a bears
track in the snow neal Knob pond
that morning, and the deer shooters
said they guessed they would Just as
o o hunt the bear for a change. So l
got three dogs and put them on the
track and stationed the city chaps here
and there. The dogs hustled the bear
into a swamp and then out of it. On
the edge of the swamp one of the dogs
got in his way and was killed, and be-
fore any of us could get a shot at him
he ook the back track and disabled
another dog. The third dog was too
sharp for the bear, and bounded him
into the swamp and out four or five
times. Finally the bear gave up try
ing to hide in the swamp and headed
for a ravine half a mile off. The fun
niest thing of it all was that the bear
ran right into the neighborhood where
the bird hunter was trying to find
grouse. Before the bird shooter had
a chance to realize what all the crack
ing in the brush meant, the bear
crashed through the saplings close to
him and appeared in sight. The
grouse hunter said his first thought
was TO leg it up the hill, but he was
afraid the bear would chase him, and
so he faced the music and fired two
charges Of No. 6 shot into the bears
face and eyes. The bear couldn't see
to travel after that, and we killed
him"
One day the young son of a man
who lives on Tunkhannock creek
went a mile or SO from home to gather
beechnuts. A large, jet black New
foundland dog accompanied the lad,
and while the boy was busy picking
nuts from under a tree he saw the dog
prick up his ears, wag his tail and trot
off as though he had spied another
dog and was going to meet him. This
surprised the boy, but he didn't call
the dog back. He watched him
though, and he quickly saw that the
dog was trotting toward a much larger
animal and one just as black as the
dog. When the dog had got within a
few yards of the other black creature
he suddenly put his tail between his
legs, whirled right about and ran past
the boy as though he was half scared
to death. The moment the dog did
this the other animal, which the boy
then saw was a huge black bear,
turned tail just as suddenly and wad-
died off in the opposite direction as
fast as he could &C. Each had been
very much frightened by the other,
and the boy saw nothing more of the
dog until he reached home.
Not long ago two men who live near
here took a beagle hound and went
over to Red Ridge to hunt rabbits. A
large bulldog followed them and stay
ed nea them while the beagle scared
the rabbits out of the brush. All at
once a big rabbit scampered out of the
underwood and dashed down the slope
past the men. Its appearance excited
the bulldog, and he gave chase at the
top of his speed. When he was with
in a few feet of the rabbit the dog got
tripped in some running vines and
was turned end for end like a flash.
He didn't realize that he had been re-
yersed, and in his eagerness to get at
the rabbit he ran straight up the hill
the moment he got out of the tangle.
By that time the rabbit was we'll to-
ward the foot of the slope, and after
the confused dog had run several rods
he stopped all of a sudden, sat upon
his launches and howled for a minute
or so, much TO the amusement of the
hunters. Saunders Mill Cor. New
York Tribune.