The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-22

of the outlying lands hut here and there
ridges of harder higher earth run
through it. On these ridges in time of
overflow all the animal life of the
morasses and the hammocks collect, and
a man, IL so minded, could kill deer, rap-
bits, and foxes until weary, He would
get bears also, and a panther or Two. The
ridges are never visited when the water
is high, however, for the reason that in
overflow time every one in that part Of
Louisiana has enough to do to attend 10
his own business without botherinS the
wild things Although the country about
IL has been settled for more than two
hundred years, there are parts of the Big
Caney that white man has never seen.
Negroes have explored its most interior
desolations, because in the old days 1t
was the haunt of runaways, fugitive
slaves, who. once It's dark wall had
closed behind them, felt themselves safe
from bloodhounds. Sometimes they came
back to their owners, took their whip
pings sullenly and went to work, driven
10 toll and blows by the very loneliness Of
the vast tangled labyrinthine place. 9th
ers were never again heard OF, and Ii Is
supposed that after leading lives of utter
savagery, sleeping In the moss-sw9thed
trees, and eating berries, nuts and such
hCtle animals as they could trap ana
slay, they persisted. For this reason the
blacks, since the war, have stunned the
Big CdnSS, ana VIII not venture iAitO Al
unless accompanied by white men,
The game in this swamp is about what
1t was In Louisiana three centuries ago,
though, as the territory Is restricted, there
is not so much of ii. 1t is certainly as wild
now as then, and the predatory fauna are
as savage. The fighters among the wild
beasts, outside of the wild boar, are not
many A panther was killed with buck
shot near the northern edge Of the Big
Ice tha A~gf Ia
three years. II was not large, measuring
only four feet from nose to tail root. The
black bear is plentiful, but the black bear
will not fight anything except other bears
and dogs He win eat young pigs II he can
get them, which is not often, but he pre-
fers vegetable foods and, above all. honey.
Bee trees are many. and the heavy sac
charine comb and Juices which he devours
give sweet taste to his flesh. There Is
no authenticity instance in louisiana of
a black bear attacking a human being,
young or old. Black bears have been beat
en- to death with clubs In the hands or
negroes, making no resistance at all, anx-
ious only to get away. The black bear
when caught an a trap win whine and
plead In an almost human way. but he
never thinks of using his enormous
strength in an offensive effort at release,
and submits tamely to the slaughter.
He is an exceedingly cunning animal
wise would be a better word-so much
so, in fact, that he Is rarely captured ex-
cept with dogs that strike his tran and
run him TO a standstillIt Is then that he
shows himself in his best light, because
as a dog fighter pound for pound, he has
no superior in the animal kingdom. In his
wild state the very sight or scent OF a
hound appears 20 infuriate him. and he los
es Instantly all of his dread of humanity
He will battle to his last grasp though
twenty men be standing about yelling en-
couragement to their allies, and when ne
goes down his last thought Is for the dog
which has him by the nose and not for the
man who stole the dog. black bear sew
en- years old and sound, will weigh ordi-
narily from $50 to 400 pounds Much OF TINS
is fat, which lies in three-inch layer un-
der his hary-hide, but good deal OF II Is
bone and muscle, especially muscle. HIS
wind is good. so good, in fact, that ne
will often travel ten miles straight on END,
come to bay long enough TO draw deep
breath or two and then burst through his
foes and dash the canes right and left,
leaving three-foot path behind MIN. Inc
noise made by a bear when going hard
through a canebrake seems out of proper
lion to his size 1t sounds, indeed. as IL
drove of horses were being rushed through
the rafting stems.
The bear will stand an immense amount
of roughing. He is exceedingly fast ana
clever with his paws. He fights always
in an upright position, with his back
against a tree SO that 1t is difficult for a
dog to get at him from behind. His blow
is a half-arm swpe, delivered from lett
to right or from right to left with equal
force. for he Is ambidextrous. This blow,
although the semi-circle described Is very
short and the paw has no space In Which
to gather Momentum, is Of giant power
and it is amazingly swift, The pugilist
does not live who could guard it. ii would
floor the heaviest and steadiest man II
il landed anywhere above the waist line,
and it is sufficient to send large dog fly
ing through the air like a shuttlecock.
The canine rib was never built that would
Withstand it's impact. When this blow
gets home fairly the dogs bones crack
as il they were pipe stems. There IS al
ways a short semi-surprised yelp, a brief
couvulsion a long shiVer, and then no
more dog Meantime the bear is too busy
TO feel any sort of satisfaction. Reared
upon his launches he is more than five
feet tall and his foes, In order to reach
his throat, must leap high AS his ter
rible arms protect this part Of him as eff
GENTLY as the quarterback blade of the
fencer shields his body, the throat leap
is more often a death leap. Louisiana
hunters who go after him know
their business, and prove 1t when they
gather a large pack. Ten days
in the Big Caney, with an average Of
one bear a day brought to bay, will use
up a good many dogs 1t is seldom that
the pack which left the pen returns with
more than a tenth of It's number. Three
cane wagons may have been needed 20
transport the dogs to the place Of action,
but when camp is broken they can be
put into an ordinary two-horse affair and
not crowd each other. combat in which
not more than two are slain IS looked on
as q poor fight indeed, and the dead
bear Is regarded with contempt
These battles make some strange revela-
lions about dogs. Often a big, heavy
jawed, blear-eyed, savage-looking brute,
with bull and mastif and bloodhound in
him. will turn tail and butt his brains out
against a tree In the first fifty yards Of
his meteoric fight, while yellow under
sized, ehambling, wool-nosed cur, with his
tail hablually between his gnarled legs.
and an apology for being alive In his up
turned eve. will hy straight for the nose-
hold without pause or sound, and meet
his death as calamity as any paladin that
ever fell upon the sands of Palestine. The
planters hereabouts have learned never 70
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