Year: 1878

BRUIN WHILE BLACBERRYING IN

 THE ADIRONDACK NOUN

 1 TAINs

 1 So many conflicting accounts have appear ed about my casual encounter with an Adj rondack bear last summer, that in justice to the public, to myself, and to the Lear, it is nec- essary to make plain statement of the facts: Besides, it is so seldom have occasion to kill bear that the celebration of the exploit may be excused.

 The encounter was unpremeditated on both sides. I was not huntingfo bear, and l have no reason to suppose that bear was looking for me. The fact is that we were both out blackberrying, and met by chance, the usual way. There is among the Adirodack visitors always a great deal of conversation about bears general expression of the wish to see one in the woods, and much speculation as to how person would act if he or she chanced to meet one. But bears are scarce and timid, and appear only to favored few.

 It was warm day in August, just the sort or day when an adventure of any kind seemed impossible. But it occurred to the housekeep- CTS at our cottage-there were four of them to send me me to the clearing on the mountain back of the house to pick blackberies. It was rather series of small clearings, running up | into the forest, much overgrown with bushes and briers, and not unromantic. Cows past ured there, penetrating through the leafy pas sages from one opening to another, and brow sing among the bushes. 1 was kindly furnish ed with six-quart pail, and told not to be | gone long.

 Not from any predatory instinct, but to save appearances 1 took gun. It adds to the man. | ly aspect of person with tin pail if he also carries gun. It was possible 1 might start up partridge; thought how 1 was to hit him | if he started up instead of standing still pug zled me- Many people use a shot gun for par tridges I prefer rifle it makes clean job of death and does not prematurely stuff the bird with globules oflead. The rife was Sharps carrying ball cartridge, ten to the pound; an excellent weapon, belonging to friend of mine who had intended for good many years back to kill a deer with it. He could hit a tree ] with it if the wind did not blow and the at mosphere was just right and the tree was not too far off, nearly every time; of course the tree must have the same size. Needless to say that I was at that time no sportsman. Years ago killed robin under the most hu- initiating circumstances The bird was in a low cherry-tree; loadeda big shot gun pretty full, crept up under a tree, rested the gun on 6 fence with the muZZle not more thanten feet from the bird, shut both eyes and pulled the trigger. When got up to see what had hap | pened the robin was scattered about under the tree in more than thousand pieces; no one of which was large enough toenable nat | uralist to decide from it to what species they belonged This disgusted me with the life of a sportsman. 1 mention the incident to show that, althought went blackberrying arm ed, there was not much inequality between me and the bear.

 In this blackberry patch bears had been seen The summer before, our colered cook, accompanied by little girl fthe vicinage, was picking berries there one day, when a bear came out of the woods and walked towards them The girl took to her heels and escaped. Aunt Chloe was paralyzed with terror. h. staid of attempting to run, she sat down on the ground where she was standing and began to weep and scream, giving herself up for lost. | The bear was bewildered by this conduct. He approached and looked at her. he walked | around and surveyed her. Probably he had never seen a colored person before, and did not know whether she would agree with him. | At any rate, after watching her few mo- meuts he turned about and went into the for est. This is an authentic instance of the deli cate consideration of bear, and is much more remarkable than the forbearance towards the | African slave of the well-known lion, because the bear had no thorn in its foot.

 When I had climbed the hill, sat up my | rife against tree and began picking berries, l of fruit that always promises more in the dis tance than it realizes when you reach 1t; pene- trating farther and farther, through leaf-shad- ed cow-paths flecked with sunlight, into clear ing after clearing. I could hear on all sides the tnkle of bells, the cracking of sticks, and the stamping of cattle that were taking refuge in the thicket from the flies. Occasionally, as 1 broke through covert l encountered meek cow. who stared at me stupidly for second and then shambled off into the brush j; I became accustomed to this dumb society, and picked on in silence, attributing all the wood noises to the cattle, thinking nothing of any real bear. In point of fact, however, 1 was 1 thinking all the time of a nice romantic bear and, as picked, was composing story of | generous she-bear who had lost her cub, and who seized small girl in this very wood, car ried her tenderly off to her cave, and brought her up on bears milk and honey. When the girl got big enough to run away, moved by ln- herited instincts she escaped and came into the valley to her fathers house(this part of the story was to be worked out so that the child would know her father by some family resem- blance, and have some language in which to address him. and told him where the bear lived The father took his gun, and, guided by the unfeeling daughter, went into the woods and shot the bear, who never made any resist ance, and only, when dying turned reproach- full eyes upon her murderer. The moral of the tale was to be kindness to animals.

 I was in the midst of this tale when hap pened to look some rods away to the other edge of the clearing, and there was bear He was standing on his hind legs and doing just what I was doing-picking blackberries. With one paw he bent down the bush, while with the other he clawed the berries into his mouth, green ones and all. To say that 1 was aston ished is inside the mark. 1suddenly discover ed that didn't want to see a bear, after all At about the same moment the bear saw me stopped eating berries, and regarded me with glad surprise. It is all very well to imagine what you would do under such circumstances Probably you wouldn't do it; l didn't The bear dropped down on his fore-feet and came slowly towards me. Climbing a tree was o1 no use with so good climber in the rear; ii started to run, 1 had no doubt the bear would give chase, and although a bear cannot TUT down hill as fast as he can up hill, yet fef that he could get over this rough, bush-tanglee ground faster than I could.

 The bear was approaching. It suddenly oc cured to me how could divert his mind un til could fall back upon my military base My pail was nearly full of excellent berries much better than the bear could pick himself away from it, keeping my eye, as beast-tamer do, on the bear. The ruse succeeded.

 The bear came up to the berries and stop ped; not accustomed to eat out of pail, h. tipped it over and nosed about m the fruit ''gorming' (if there be such wordD it down mixed with leaves and dirt, like pig. Tn bear is a worse feeder that pig. Wheneve he disturbs maple-sugar camp in the spring he always upsets the buckets of syrup ant tramples around in the sticky sweets, wastin more than he eats. The bears manners ar thoroughly disagreeable.

 As soon as my enemy's head was down,

 started and ran. Somewhat out of breath an shaky, l reached my faithful rifle: 1 was no