Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-04-23

serve Gives New York Sportsman IL
Dissertation on Bears.
To the ears o: the New York sports
man and Tom Meserve, his guide, lying
or the he'd of evergreen boughs i'll camp
OH the shore Of Noosehead lake, came
the scream Of u bear somewhere OF III
the dark forest. 1t WAS queer sound
that WIS much like the shrill call OF
d-i-n.n-e-r, with rising infection at
the end. with which New England farm
wives summon the men from the fields
to the MONDAY meal 1t was repeated
several timesat intervals and came each
time from nearer the camp. The guide
got up and went out TO the maple grove
a few rods away, took down from Il
limb the buck that was hanging there,
dragged it nearer tho camp and hung 1t
ND 10 a tree within plain sight of the
doorway.
..When we Erow thata bear is prowl-
ING round, it Is we'll to have rvenison
where we can soc it, he said. He
won't come so hear the camp, but II we
left the meat cut among the NAPLES he q
be apt TO spoil some of it before morn
inc. \ bear is !! hungry creature and
will eat about everything, from honey
10 carriou-a stale salt mackerel will
draw one farther than anything else
but he is shy about coming around
camps where people are. You'll see that
this one Will come near enough to find
out that there are people here, and then
will so away
The New Yorker was for going out
10 try q shot at the bear, but the guide
told him that it was Of no use.
"Hs won't come into view anyway,
lie said land if you show yourself at
the door he'll rot come within rife
shot. Remember that lie can see in the
dark, bat unless you should set q
glimpse of his eyes You couldn' { distin-
guish him among the shadows five steps
away. Just listen, aud we may hear
him.
The New York man lay down again
upon the boughs. The scream came cnce
again close at hand and after that was
heard 10 more Presently the guide lift
ed his head and signaled the New York
er that he should listen. There was 4
sound of cracking twigs and rustling
bushes somewhere outside the open
space in front Of the camp, but no noise
of footballs. Then came little sharp
sound of smiling and after that the
noise of something moving through the
bushes again. The snu!ings and then
the moving on again kept up Until the
bear had completely circled round the
camp, and then the sounds from him
died away. Bruin had found out I'll be
wanted to know about the camp decid-
ed that venison there was likely to come
too high in the way Of risk in getting it,
and gene away without showing him
self or exposing his skin to any greater
risk than that Of random shot.
That's the way with bears, OBJ
served Meserve as the two men lighted
their pipes. You almost never get
shot at one unless you catch him swim
ming q pond-and in that case You
want to make sure of your shooting OF
he'll come aboard your boat, which
makes things bad-or run him down
with dogs, which is expensive, for the
more valuable the dog the more certain
he is to get killed. It's only the ours
that will yap at the bears heels and run
away W hen he turns Oh them that es-
cape damage in bear chase, and, once
in sight Of the bear, they're the most
useful too. The bear is like what have
read of elephants He cant bear the
sound of little deg swapping behind
him and keeps turning round TO drive
him off and so gives the hunters
chance to come up.
"There was one bear that stayed
round this shore for years, and he gave
fishermen no end of trouble by robbins
their camps when they were out on the
lake fishing. He uothered them worst IL
the early spring, when they came up to
the lakes to fish through the ice 1t was
about that time that the bear would
come out from his winters sleep lean
and hungry, and it took q heap to fill
him up. He was great traveller, and
before the fishing season ended he would
be heard Of from one end of the lake to
the other They could tell thar it was
one bear that did the business, for this
one had q foot with some Of the toes
gone, and the tracks about the camp al
ways showed this mark.
:This bear run his rig up and down
the lake fer three years without get
ting into trouble. lie came to grief at
last in & very queer way. y man nam
cd Silas Thompson, camping alone Oh
the east shore Of the lake. was out Oh
the ice miMdiag his lines one March
day and thi1..ing how he would have
to 90 home sooner than he had intended,
owing TO an accident that had happened
that morning at his camp. In some way
he had dropped his rum jug and broken
it in two or three places. There was q
bottle with some molasses in it standing
by the fireplace and by grabbing up the
jug quickly aud holding it over the bot
tie he managed to save a quart or two
of rum in the shape of black strap
that's the state of Iaine name for rum
md molasaes naked together, and it's
an cnticius drink. He had just made
up his mind to go to the camp to try a
little of the mixture when he saw
bear coming out on the ice from that
direction, and the bear WAS staggering
drunk. 1t had broken into the camp and
was drunk ON Silas Thompson run
and molasses. The bear didn't seem to
know where he was at or where he
wanted to CO. and while he hourdered
round on the ice Thompson made a cir
cult past him, got to the camp and cane
back with his gun and shot him. 1t
proved to be the bear that had robbed
the fishermen camps so long. He died
happy, and the fishermen troubles
we're ended so far as he was concerned. J"
Famous Three RS.