The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30
DOGS FAMED AS BEAR HUNTERS
COURAGE AND STRENGTH OF THE
CHEROKEE PACK.
A Breed Nsted I'm che North Carellna Noun
tains for More IMAM q Year Odd julio
In at the Death ef Twenty-Five Bears
TIA Heel Bears snd the Chestnut Crop.

I'm at the Death Of Twenty-Five Bears
Tar Heel Bears snd the Chestnut Crop.
CHARLOTTE, N. c.. Dec. 3s.--This 10 bear
counties, = said Marshall W. Bell Of Murphy,
N. c., at the Central Hotel last night. 'but
we will not hunt there this season.
why" asked a friend.
"Bruin Is not there 20 hunt answered
Mr.. Bell. The chestnut crop was a failure
this year and the bears have gone 70 parts
unknown. 1t Is said in the mountains that
In on years, that is, when the c~hestnuts are
scarce, the bears go to the Mississippi bot
toms for the fall and winter. ] have no
Idea where old Bruin goes, but he leaves
western North Carolina. Hunters will not
go 10 the Unaka Mountains this season. for
they know that they nno find anything
unless it be a hog eater, and they don't
want him.
What is a hog eater2'
"A hog eater said Mr.. Bell. Corresponds
to a chicken eating hog, a sheep killing dog
or a man eating lion; when onoe he ao-
quires a thirst for blood nothing else will
satisfy him.
Now and then we ind hog eaters In the
Land OF the Sky. Whenever you see one
you will know him by his gaunt body and his
ability to run. They arc very fast.
The hog eater lives on hogs, eating them
alive. He lays for his game, takes him
unawares, pounoes OF him, wraps his fore
legs about him, hugs him close and socks
his sharp teeth into his flesh and drinks the
warm blood and eats the flesh.
One fine spring day several years ago
when my partner. j. H. billiard, and old
man Peart Yearwood, a noted hunter who
lives In the last house going west into the
mountains on Little Snow Bird Creek, were
out hunting for a wild turkey gobbler,
they heard a hog holler down on Sassafras
Run. Being trained hunters, they knew
well what that call meant.
They separated and slipped into the
laurel to see II they could kill the blood
thirsty bear. billiard soon got a shot at
him and toppled him over. This bear had
sneaked upon the u~nsuspecting hog as he
rooted beneath the roots of a large tree that
had blown down and fastened his legs
around his body INC was devouring him,
eating away his shoulder while the hog
fought and squealed. AT the crack Of the
gun the bear fell and the hog ran of, limping
along on three legs.
That is what / call cruelty TO animals.
The bear that billiard killed could have
outrun a pack of red fox dogs. He could
divide the laurel and be gone while you were
batting your eyes twice"
How 10 the bears get their chestnuts,
Mr.. Bell?" was asked.
The bear has a little eye but he can
see as well at night as he can in the day
time. He forages while we sleep. Chest
nuts are his ~favorite diet and he picks them
up from the ground after they have ripened
and ALLEN from the burrs.
The ground squirrel gathers chestnuts
and buries them and the bear finds them
and digs her out. If he is not hungry the
providing bear will tear out a hole OF chest
nuts and scatter them Just for m-eanness."
SIN hunting bears on Snow Bird Creek
how do o go about it2"
We'll, we make up a party and 20 INTO
the mountains and pitch our tents, We
start hunting early in the morning, dividing
into two squads-the gunners in one and
the drivers in the other.
The gunners take stands as you do in
hunting deer and the drivers beat about
the laurel with the dogs, which are kent
chained until they strike a good trail. The
dogs follow the trail until they jump the
bear and then they drive him hard until
he il overtaken.
"The right sort Of dog will not crowd the
bear, but will hold him at bay. by nippin9
his hind legs. until a hunter comes up and
fires. and then the plucky dogs sail in and
make it warm for Bruin. The dog is put
wounded bear is a dangerous foe.
III knocks and bites right and left,
wounding and killing dogs il he can. I
have seen as many as six fine dogs disabled
in one bear fight.
Here I van to say that I think the hunt
ers of Cherokee have the best bear dogs in
the world. I cannot tell you where those
dogs came from, but they lave been in that
community nearly a hundred years.
They are the sort Of beasts that IL you
met one in the Dad YOU would give him
more than his share. They have fine sense,
powerful frames, great muscles and all
kinds Of grit.
-Old Jude, the dam OF the present pack,
was the greatest one that I recall. She
was large and fierce. The bear that could
whip her never lived.
Il saw a tremendous fellow beat her
to the ground, tear several Of her ribs from
her backbone n break one of her legs,
but she crawled after him and fought him
as long as there was life in her body. The
boys had to carry her home, laid out on a
stretcher.
Jude weighed between eighty and ninety
DOuHuS anu WHe1 she got neT DOlO ON a
bear she never turned loose until the bear
was dead. Yet she was not ~foolhardy.
She would stand of until the gun cracked
and then hy in. She had sense enough
TO know that she could not whip a bear
that had not been MORALLY wounded.
Jude was the mother of old julie, our
present mainstay. To give you an idea
OF the sort OF dogs they are | will tell you
what occurred last summer
~Old julie has been at the death OF twenty
FIVE or more bears and she is a veteran
Of the best type. Between seasons she is
kept by Andy Hoss, a mountaineer who
lives on the headwaters OF Hanging Dog
Creek, in Cherokee county. She weighs
about eighty pounds and is all bone and
good muscle.
"She brought forth a litter Of puppies
last summer. There were seven of the
little fellows and we did not care to keep
more than four of them, so we told Andy
to drown the other three.
Now, with an ordinary dog drowning
her puppies is Ar easy task, but not so with
one Of those old bear fighters. julie and all
Of her kind have gone far from home to de-
liver themselves OF offspring. They are
so close to the mountains and the wild
creatures that roam there that they do not
trust mankind.
Therefore. following the custom of her
annaatOra old .Inla want hark into a nraok