The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-20
HITNTING THE BLACK BEAR.

est towards that run the WOODS. LII
 the very early days of this country the
 black bear may have had little cour- age, but I do not believe there is much
 truth in any of the stories of this ami
 mal attacking man. This latter state
 ment needs qualification only in one in
 stance It Is stated that after Brad
 docks defeat the black bears of the
 gorests around the battlefield fed upon
 the human bodies to such an extent | that they lost fear of the human figure, and seemed to think that all men were made to eat. In some instances they | attacked live men in that vicinity for quite while after the battle. Captain
 R. E. Bobo, of Bobo, Miss, I believe to | be without exception the greatest bear l hunter America has ever known. In
 the first year after he had moved down into the Mississippi delta country he | killed three hundred and six bears, and
 he has often killed five or six bears,
 and he has often killed five or six bears I in one day Yet Captain Bobo says that out of the thousands of bears which he has killed-and I mean to say l soberly and seriously that he has killed thousands of bears-he has not known | a half-dozen cases where the black bear has shown any signs of attacking him
 or any of his men. Once a she-bear
 with cubs, when cornered, lay back her ears and showed fight.
 | It might be thought bad form to run down the personal reputation of the | black bear, and then go on to call him not such bad fellow after all. but that l is pretty near the sportsman's view of | the matter. There has been more mon- ey and time spent in hunting the fox than in the pursuit of any other ami maj in the world; and the fox and the bear should be classified much alike In regard to their sporting qualities. No
 genuine for hunter would think of
 shooting a fox and although it is le gitimate to still-hunt the black bear, that form of hunting Is not so easy or successful as 1t might be In some re- gions, whereas in other regions 1t Is ab- solutely impracticable and impossible; and it is in these latter localities that the bears are most abundant. To trap bear, whether black or a grizzly, Is outside the province of all sport.
 The most practical method of hunting the black bear-and the one which also offers the greatest sport--is hunting him with dogs. This style of sport be- comes an art in itself in the southern canebreak country, where 1t is to be had at it's best. The bear pack is origi
 nally based on the old fox-hound strain, and may contain a few specimens of pure or nearly pure-bred fox-hounds, which are used as the "cold- -nosed' dogs, to run the trail. Some very cold nosed dogs will not run bear trail, but slink away in fear as soon as they strike it. so that out of half-a-dozen members of the pack there may be only one or two upon which the hunters rely as strike dogs"
 good strike dog is valued more than the hunters plantation. Such a dog will run bear, and nothing but bear, and it is curious to see what confidence the rest of the pack will have in him.
 When he opens they all pile in after him, and so the hunt is carried on, the towards dropping out and the fighters going to the front Besides the fox hound contingent good bear pack will contain from twenty to forty dogs of mixed character. A cross of the fox hound and the Irish terrier makes good bear dog, and sometimes the ver- fest cur whose lineage is covered gen. erations deep under bars sinister, may turn out to be one of the most valuable dogs in the pack. The cross bred dogs have not the nose to keep the trail, but are very valuable when the pack has come up with the bear. A really good bear dog has valor enough to close in and nip the bear, but discretion enough to jump away out of reach and not hang on to be killed by the bear. As it is any successful bear chase usually means the killing of five or six dogs, and the hunter who closes in to shoot the bear when 1t has been stopped by the pack ought to be especially careful to make a sure shot, because at the re- port of the gun the whole pack usually piles in on the bear, and it is at this time that most of the dogs are killed.
 It may be imagined that it requires constant recruiting to keep up a good bear pack. I counted the dogs we had with us one morning as I rode out on a hunt with Captain Bobo and there were fifty-three of them. But when the sun set where were they! Captain Bobo told me that he supposed he had about one hundred dogs scattered around over his plantation along the negro cabins. It was no trouble to muster a good corps of dogs and darkies when the captain blew his horn for a hunt.
 No northern man who has not seen a southern canebrake can have any idea of it's denseness and impenetrability. The cane stands thick as the hair on u dogs back, and twenty or thirty feet high, braided together by vines and creepers so tightly that sometimes even the dogs can hardly get through it. A man lost in that country is in desper- ate plight, for he could not travel a mile in the entire day on foot Some times the horsemen are unable to pro- ceed except by cutting the cane in front of them with their heavy knives. The heavy body of cane may be crossed here and there by dry swamps, old bayou beds, or narrow paths of thin growth known only to the natives. The whole science and sport of the hunt Is to know the country we'll enough to guess which way the bear will head, and then ride so as to intercept him