The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-04-06
WHITE MOUNTAIN BEARS,
And an Ex- Clergyman Who Makes
q Living Killing Them.
In-IIcnlth and Love OF Nature Caused
Him to Forsake the Pulpit for
the Forests and tho
Hills.

The only man mt present in the White
mountain region whose sole occupation
is hunting bears lives in the Pequakct
Intervale. Do not picture n grizzly,
picturesque character, fond of relating
adventures and hairbreadth escapes.
Perhaps you will lift your incredulous
eyebrows when it is said that he is q
gentleman and scholar and has been
clergyman! Yet it is true He is n
tall, thin man, with bright, intelligent
eyes, dignitied bearing and gentle man
ncr, says Portsmouth IN. HI core
spondent of the New York Sun.
cit is not necessary to enter into de-
tails of how he happened to abandon
his profession beyond saying that ill
health was the chief cause; and it NAV
be added that he has always been pos
sessed with an intense fondness for ma
ture, more especially the wild and sol
ltary Businesses of mountains, only to
be found in following the trail of such
game as bears, whose haunts they are.
lie has also limited that, brought up on
farm in region where game was
abundant, his earliest sports and JOYS
were trapping and cunning; and later
in life, when settled in more serious oc-
equations, an unconqucrablc longing
for the free life of woods and fields
often overcamc him. and ut length the
time arrived when he could not resist
1T, and his health seemed also to re-
quire an opcn-air life.
But though not now clergyman he
is still n scholar, especially in all that
pertains to woodcraft, hunting and
trapping. For he knows, for instance,
not only the habits and traits of the
bear, but has also scientific knowl-
edge of its anatomy In this he is self
taught, chiefly by dissecting the ami
mails which he captures. Ofcoursc the
principal money value of the bear to
him is in the pelts and the state bounty.
In addition he does quite business in
selling the skeletons to museums, pri-
vnte students and soulptors, and he
Keeps on hand an assortment of The
different bones, SO that he can supply
any particular bone required.
This hunter is also an expert me-
chanie. lie designs, FORCES and puts
together all his own traps, and has
made various improvements in them.
They never lose him q bear, once
sprung upon him, and the country
people, mountain climbers and anna
teur sportsmen are more afraid of
them than they are of the beasts them
selves. They are terrible to look at
and make one think of the torturino
implements of the inquisition. There
is really very little danger to travel.
crs, however, from the hunters traps,
for the ways of the bear are not those
of men. lie haunts the most inacces-
sible, rocky and rugged portions of the
White mountains, coming down rarely
to the lakes, cornfelds and sheep pas
lures. In the summer one occasionally
meets stray cub, usually pair, in
the roads, as yet ignorant OF the dam
gers of civilization.
Mr. NJ, to give him at least an
initial, hunts and traps over about
1l1ty miles of mountain territory ex-
tending from the southwest to the
north of PcqualSct Intcrvalc, but most
~ over the Chocorua range, in which
inay be included the Chocorua noun
tam itself and its various spurs, Pau
gus sometimes called, in consequence
OF It's humpy character and it's immc-
diatc proximity to an inevitab bic com
parison with the splendid peak of Cbo-
corua, "thc Mountain that Failed ny
Passaconanoy, White Face. and the
Southwest Dome. lie knows the most
secret and untrod rcccsscs of all this
districtiprob as no other man knows
or ever has known them, but precisely as
the bear and other wild animals know
them. lie follows their trail wherever
1T may lead, with an instinct like an
Indians. lie notes the slightest turn
OF leaf or twig, the fresh mark on n
rotton log, the footprint on moss where
another would see nothing. He seldom
bats his traps. knowing pretty nearly
where the bears foot will fall. It Is q,
constant wonder how n man of his
Slight physique can tramp his forty
miles day over the toughest and
widest parts of the Chicorua range,
through the tangle of "blow-downs"
and the thickets of spruce and hem
lock. lie seems to be all sinew, with
not an ounce of supcrfluous flesh, and
long exercise of this sort has made him
hardy and enduring. lie travels light
~ armed, gun and knife his weapons,
sometimes only revolver, as he can
usually shoot at ortrange if the bear
be still alive in the trap.
Sometimes the bear is dead, but not
often, for he will live week with his
leg caught fast in trap. Attached to
the trap is a stout chain, longer or
shorter, and at the end of the chain n
series of hooks, something like the
ilukes OF an anchor. These arc to pre-
vent the bear from escaping with the
trap; they catch and impede his travel
ing far. But sometimes lie drags the
trap long distances, and then he has to
be tracked which ic NOT 6;n,o,lt "a, l, .