Mr D----, one of our neighbors, was going after his cows one night, and
had a singular bit of experience. He kept the cattle near a meadow, and
in going for them had to pass through a clump of bushes where
raspberries and blackberries were abundant. The path was very narrow,
and in some places so much overgrown by the bushes that a person might
be very near an object and not see it. Suddenly a large bear rose up
before him, and sat on his haunches not three feet away. Mr. D---- was a
tall and very powerful man, and not easily frightened, but he didn't
like such familiarity as that. There was no time to retreat, and he had
no weapon with which to defend himself, but he clinched his huge fist,
and struck the bear a terrific blow between the eyes. Bruin was not
prepared for this, and as he sat up so straight, and could not brace
himself quick enough, the blow knocked him clean over upon his back in
the bushes. He roared, and scrambled to his feet, and ran off as fast as
his legs could carry him, much more disturbed by the event than Mr.
D---- was.
A year or two after this, my father and I were out gathering raspberries
one afternoon in August. We were in a field close by a wood, where
several acres were covered with the bushes, and as it was newly cleared
land, they grew very tall. Indeed, a person might be picking berries ten
feet distant from you, and, if he kept quiet, you would not know it.
After a while we climbed upon the trunk of a fallen tree, for the sake
of reaching some high bushes that were bending under the weight of
luscious fruit, when we saw a bear, not more than ten feet distant,
helping himself to the same berries. At first he did not see us, and we
watched him for a little as he ate the fruit. It was surprising how
skillfully he would take a bush in his paws and hold it down while he
ate off the berries, and then let it go and catch another.
But we wanted those raspberries, and father shouted and swung his pail
around his head, thinking to drive the bear away. But the beast did not
propose to be disturbed in that way, and seemed to think he had as much
right there as we. He simply let go the bushes, and looked at us.
Father grew impatient with swinging the pail of berries around his own
head, and threw it with all his might at the head of the bear. It was
well aimed, for it struck him squarely in the face. It scattered the
berries all over him, and the tin pail fell rattling among the bushes
and stones. I never saw such a picture of astonishment as that bear
presented. For a brief instant he seemed paralyzed, and then, dropping
on four feet, he ran away screaming like a child who has been frightened
by a turkey-gobbler. Father's berries were spilled, but he could do
nothing else for some minutes but laugh at the way that poor bear ran
and screamed.
We hear stories about bears attacking people without provocation, but I
believe most of them are purely imaginary or greatly exaggerated. I have
hunted the black bear in the New England States, and in the British
Provinces; I have threaded the forests on foot, and scoured the plains
on horseback, but I never yet saw a black bear that would attack a man,
unless it were a dam whose cubs were meddled with, or a bear that had
been wounded and driven into a corner. Under such circumstances any
animal will fight in self-defense. The chief difficulty with black bears
is, not that they will hurt you, but that you can not get near enough to
hurt them.