Year: 1878

30 many conflicting accounts have ap
peared about my casual encounter with
an Adirondack bear, last summer, that
in justice to the public, TO myself, and to
! the bear it is necessary 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 ex-
cused.


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


1t was warm day in August, Just the
sort of day when an adventure of any
kind seemed impossible. But it occurred
to the housekeepers of our cottage
there were four of them to send me to
theclearing on the mountain back of the
house to pick blackberries. It was rath-
er series of small cleatings, running up
into the forest, much overgrown with
bushes and briars, and not unromantic.
Cows Pastured there, penetrating through
the, ,leafy passages from ons opening to
anoths-, and browsing among the bushes.
/ was kindly furnished with a six-quart
pail, and told not TO be gone long.


Not from any predatory instinct, but
to save appearances, 1 took a gun. 1t
adds to the manly aspect OF person
with tin pail if he also carries gun.
1t was possible l might start up par
tridge though how L was to hit him if
he started up instead of standing still
puzzled me. Many people used a shot
gun for partridges. I prefer the rife; it
makes clean job of desth, and does not
Prematurely stuff the bird with globules
of lead. The rife was, q Sbarp's, carry
ing ball cartridge, ten to a pound an
excellent weapon, belonging to friend
of mine who had intended Tor good
many years back to kill a deer with it.
He could hit tree with it, if the wind
did not blow and the atmosphere was
just right and the tree was not to far
of, nearly every time; of course the tree
must have some size. Needless to say
that ] was at that time no sportsman.
Years ago l killed robin under the most
humiliating circumstances. The bird
was in low cherry-tree; l loaded big
shotgun pretty full, crept up under. the
tree, rested the gun on the fence, with
the muzzle more than ten feet from the
bird, shut both eyes, and pulled the trig-
ger When got up to see what had
happened, the robin was scattered about
under the tree in more than a thousand
pieces, no one of which was big enough
to enable naturalist to decide from it
TO what species it belonged. This dis
gusted me with the life of a sportsman.
l mention the incident to show that,
slthough 1 went blackberrying armed,
there was not much inequality between
me and the bear.


In this blackberry patch bears had
been seen. The summer before, our col
ored cook, accompanied by little girl
Of the vicinage, was picking berries there
one day, when bear came out of the
woods and walked towards them. The
girl took to her heels and escaped. Aunt
Chloe was Raralyzed with terror. In
stead 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 bewil-
dered by this conduct. He approached
and looked at her; he walked around and
surveyed her Probably he had never
seen colored person before, and did net
know whether she would agree with him.
At any rate, after watching her few
moments he turned about and went into
the forest. This is an authentic instance
of the delicate consideration of bear
and is much more remarkable than the
forbearance towards the African slave o.
the well-known lion, because the beaI
had no thorn in his foot.


When 1 had climbed the hill, set uE
nv rifle against a tree and began pick
ing berries, lured on from bush to bush
bv the black gleam of fruit that always
nromises more in the distance than il
realizes when you reach it; penetrating
farther and farther, through leafshadec
coy-paths fecked with sunlight, into
clearing after clearing. / could hear or
all sides the tinkle of bells, the cracking
Of sticks, and the stamping of cattle that
were taking refuge in the thicket from
the flies. Occasionally, as / broke
through a covert, encountered a meel
COW. who stared at me stupidity for {
second and then shambled off into the
brush 1 became accustomed to this duml
society, and picked on in silence, attrib
uting all the wood-noises to the cattle
thinking nothing of any real bear. II
point of fact, however, / was thinkin.