Evening star., 1899-03-30
A SUGAR-CuRED BEAR.
How He Surprised Gatherer of
Maple Sfrup in Maine.

fronl tne chicago Inter Ocean.
AS soon as the sap begins to climb I'D un-
der the bark of the rock maple trees and
the smell Of boiling sirup spreads through
the woods the lean old bears and the active
ones that have slept lightly through
the winter rub their eyes and snarl in their
dreams for day or two and then come out
hungry for the sweets which their nostrils
have detected. For this reason no wise sap
gatherer ever goes into the Maine woods
without taking his rifles and bear traps
The best sap orchard in eastern Maine is
owned and operated by Fred King, Veazie
Frenchman. 1t is on the south side of
Blacks mountain, four miles from Dedham
tannery. King tapped his first tree on ST,
Valentines day. A week later when he be-
gan boiling, two bears came out to nav him
friendly evening call. He had Just piled
some hardwood sticks under the great iron
Kettle, and was nodding off to sleep, when
he heard the "Oof oofi" of an old bear
Presently a dead limb cracked among the
trees on the hillside Then he heard the
soft patter Of feet on the new snow. and
looking up, saw two bears emerge from a
woods road and walk into the circle of
light. They sat on their launches for fully
nVe minutes, sampling the air with their
noses, and running out their tongues in an
ticipation of a feast. The big bear then
walked over to the little one, touched noses
and nodded in the direction of the kettle
telling him in pantonii1ne to go ahead and
help himself. When the small one held
back and implied that age should take
precedence, the old one snarled saYagely
and walked forward rod or two in the di-
rection of the kettle. He then beckoned to
the youthful bear. who came up and re-
neWed the argument.
This forward movement placed a large
hemlock tree between King and the bears
and enabled him to crawl back to camp and
secure his rifle. Though he was not gone
five minutes, when he crept back behind the
hemlock to take aim both bears had left
AS 1t was. moonlight night, King put on
his snowshoes and gave chase. The tracks
led around to the north side of the noun
tain, and then down the slope to a pond.
where the bears had parted company. Be
lleVing the large bear the more profitable to
follow, King tracked him over the hills into
the town OF Otis. On the north side of the
hill the bear gained perceptibly but on ,e
south side, where the snow was soft. King
more than made up for his losses He saw
the bear more than a dozen times and fired
at him twice, the second time bringing
blood and angry grunts. At o'clock in the
morning. when King felt himself sure of
his game, and was wondering how he
should take the body out of the woods. the
bear sought shelter in cave on the side of
Beech HILL and King retraced his steps to
camp, ten miles away
The fire which had been left blazing under
the huge kettle was burned down to gray
ashes when King crept into his bunk with
his wet clothes on. He slept until the blue
jays came around the camp clamorinp for
breakfast. Being tired and disappointed he
was In no hurry to begin work. Along N
the middle of the forenoon when he came
in from the woods with pail of sap. he
looked in the kettle and saw something
which nearly took his breath away. on
the snow about the fire pit and damned
against the sides of the kettle were shape
less masses of dirty maple sugar. while in
side the kettle. soldered and sealed fast
in matrix of sugar, was a dead bear cub
weighing nearly 100 pounds. The Young
bear seen by King had returned to camp
after getting rid of his companion. He had
waited until the fire was out ana then
climbed the forked sticks to the pole above
the kettle While gorging himself with
sweets he had evidently slipped from the
pole and became Immersed in the cooling
Sirup.
Two days later King was in Bangor ask
ing war-times prices for sugar-cured bear
meat