Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-10-11

broke to him. and when got there,
sure enough again he had another bear
ready treed; If he hadn't, wish I may
be shot. l fired on him, and brought
him down; and then went back, and
help'd finish butchering the one at
which l had left my friend. We then
packed both to our tree where we had
left my boy. BY this time. the little
fellow had cut the tree down that we
intended to lodge, but it fell the wrong
way; he had then featherd in on the
big tree, to cut that, and had found
that It was nothing but q shell on the
outside, and all dotted in the middle,
as too many Of our big men are in
these days, having only an outside ap-
pearance. My friend and my son cut
away on 1t. and I went of about a
hundred yards with my dogs to keep
them from running under the tree when
Il should fall. On looking back at the
hole, I saw the bears head out Of It,
looking down at them as they were
cutting. hollered to them to look up,
and they did so: and Mcdaniel catch
ed up his gun, but by this time the
bear was out, and coming down the
tree. He fired at 1t, and as soon as 1t
touched the ground the dogs were all
round 1t. and they had a roll-and-tum-
BILE fight to the foot Of the hill, where
they stopp'd him. I ran up and put
ting my gun against the bear, fired and
killed him. We had now three, and so
we made our scaffold and. salted them
up"
In the Heart of the "Harricane."
In the morning l left my son at the
camp, and we started on towards the
harricane; and when we had went
about a mile; we started very large
bear, but we got along mighty slow on
account Of the cracks in the earth oc-
casioned by the earthquakes. We,
however, made out to keep in hearing
OF the dogs for about three miles, and
then we come to the harricane. Here
we had to quit our horses, as old Nick
himself couldn't have got through 1t
without sneaking 1t along in the form
that he put on, to make fool Of our
old grandmother Eve. BY this time
several of my dogs had got tired and
come back; but we went ahead on
foot for some little time in the harri-
cane, when we met a bear coming
straight to us, and not more than
twenty or thirty yards off. I started
my tired dogs after him, and McDan-
iel pursued them, and went on to
where my other dogs were. I had seen
the track Of the bear they were after,
and I knowed he was screamer.
followed on to about the middle OF the
harricane, but my dogs pursued him
so close, that they made him climb an
old stump about twenty feet high. !
got in shooting distance Of him and
fired, but was all over in such a fiut-
ter from fatigue and running, that /
couldn't hold steady: but, however,
broke his shoulder, and he fell. Irun
up and loaded my gun as quick as
possible, and shot him again and kill
ed him. When l went to take out my
knife to butcher him, found had lost
1t in coming through the harricane.
The vines and briers was so thick that
I would sometimes have to get down
and crawl like a varmint to get
through 1t all; and vine had, as 1
suppose, caught in the handle and
pulled it out, While I was standing
and studying what to do, my friend
came to me. He had followed my trail
through the harricane, and had found
my knife, which was mighty good
news to me; as a hunter hates the
worst in the world to lose good dog,
or any part of his hunting tools.
now left Mcdaniel to butcher the bear,
and went after our horses, and
brought them as near as the nature
of the case would allow. I then TOOK
our bags, and went back to where ne
was: and when we had skinned the
bear, we fleeced off the fat and carried
1t to our horses, and had heavy pack
of II on each one. We now started
and went on till about sunset, when
I concluded we must be near our
camp: so I hollered and my son an
swered me and we moved on In the
direction to the camp. We had gone
but a little way when heard my dogs
make a warm start again; ana
jumped down from my horse and gave
him up to my friend, and told him l
would follow them. He went on to the
camp, and I went ahead after my dogs
with all my might for a considerable
distance, till at last night came on.
The woods were very rough and hilly,
and all covered over with cane.
Dangerous Travelling.
l now was compelled to move on
more slowly; and was frequently fall
ing over logs, and into the cracks
made by the. earthquakes, so that
was very much afraid would break
my gun. However, I went on about
three miles, when I came to a good
big creek, which 1 waded. 1t was very
cold, and the creek was about knee
deep; but I felt no great inconvenience
from it just then, as I was all over
wet with sweat from running, and L
felt hot enough. After I got over this
creek and out of the cane, which was
very thick on all our creeks, l listen
ed for my dogs. I found they had
either treed or brought the bear TO a
stop, as they continued barking In the
same place. I pushed on as near IN
the direction of the noise as / could,
till found the hill was too steep Tor
me to climb. and so / backed ana
went down the creek some distance
till came to a place where couiu
climb up the hill. 1t was mighty DARK
and was difficult to see my way or
anything else. When I got there'
they had treed the bear In large
forked poplar and 1t was setting IN
the fork.
l could see the lump, but not plain
enough to shoot with any certainty, as
there was no moonlight; and so 1 set
in to hunting for some dry brush 10