A BEAR IN THE WATER.
The bear has one trait especially that is most dangerous to the
uneducated hunter, and that is when found swimming a lake or river he
invariably goes in a straight line from where he left the shore. Any
obstacle in the way he clambers over, be it a log, boat or canoe.
Should the place where he reaches the further shore be a high rocky
bluff, he climbs this, rather than turn from his direct course. This
may be pigheadedness or stupidity; be it as it may, he will not turn
to a low-shelving beach a few yards at one side, but it never enters
his head to take the easier landing.
I once saw a bear swimming across near the discharge of a lake. There
was a string of booms hanging down stream near the other shore and at
right angles to where he was heading. He simply clambered over the
boom logs and took the water again on the other side, instead of
trotting along the boom to the shore.
I was acquainted with an old Indian, who, knowing this trait of bears
to land where they head for, did a deed of great nerve for a man of
over sixty. He was visiting his fish net on the shore of a narrow
lake, when he saw a large bear enter the water on the opposite side a
little above, and head for the shore the old man was on. Old Pete had
no gun, but he did not hesitate a moment, but caught up his hunting
ax, and ran along shore to where the bear would land. The old man was
plainly visible to the bear from the first, but Bruin kept on his
direct course. Old Pete waded out from the shore nearly to his waist
with ax unlifted, and waited. Everything depended on striking true,
and at the proper and precise moment. He had the bear, it is true, at
a disadvantage. Still, many a younger and stronger man would have
declined the risk.
Pete was successful; he buried the ax clean into the skull the first
blow.
Another instance I witnessed of a bear not turning aside for any
obstacle: We were later than usual one evening on the water; my men
were anxious to get to the portage before camping, and were tracking
the canoe up the last mile at deep dusk. There were four men on the
line ashore, and the bow and steersmen standing up in the canoe
fending her off the rocks and shallows. My companion and I were
sitting very quietly in the middle compartment of our large canoe;
the men also were not in a talking mood, being tired and hungry. I
was sitting on the side next the river and noticed a black object
which at first I mistook for a stone, partly out of the water; but
with a second, and more searching look, I made it out to be a bear
coming straight toward the canoe.
I gave warning to the man in the bow, who stood a few feet in front
of me, and he immediately gave a sharp tug on the tow line, which
checked the men ashore. The bear by this time was about five or six
yards from the canoe, and just opposite me. I saw that nothing would
now stop him from climbing into and across the canoe. Before he could
place his paw on the side of the bark the man in the bow made a
savage lunge at him with his pike pole, but before he could give a
second blow the bear was in on my side and out on the other, right
across our legs. Our men of the tow had run back, the man in the
stern being too far off to be of any use, had the presence of mind to
throw an armful of paddles, which being of maple, made formidable
weapons. When the bear got out on the shore side they rained blows
upon blows with the sharp blades of the paddles upon his head and
body as they could get a chance. The bow man sprang ashore and lent
his assistance with his formidable pole, but marvelous as it may
sound, the bear escaped into the bush in spite of all that his
assailants could do to prevent him.
Long into the night about the dying embers of the camp-fire, I heard
the men going over the whole scene and blaming one another for not
having done something they ought to have done.
One other instance I will give of a bear's persistency to go straight
in the water, and in this case it was fatal to two men.
Two newly married couples left the mouth of the Moisie for the
interior. Their third day up stream brought them to a place where,
off to one side in the bush about a mile back, was a noted lake for
trout and whitefish. It was decided that they should portage one
canoe, and with their blankets, net and cooking utensils go and pass
the night on the lake shore. One gun was all the men took (a
flintlock--for this was years ago). Shortly after arriving at the
lake a bear was seen swimming from the other side, coming toward
where the Indians were tying their net. The two young men jumped into
the canoe and pushed out to meet him, which was a fatal mistake. The
man in the bow waited till the bear was within a couple of yards off
from the bow, and then pulled the trigger. The old gun flashed in the
pan, but there was no report. The next instant the bear clambered
over the head of the canoe and rolled the occupants into the water.
The young brides of a few days ran screaming along shore, unable to
render any assistance to their husbands, and actually witnessed both
drown before their very eyes.
I remember the arrival of the two poor women back to the coast, and
the relation of their pathetic story. To make the case much more
remarkable, they were twins by birth, and twin widows by this
tragedy.
A word of advice after the foregoing illustrations of the danger of
getting in front of a swimming bear is hardly now necessary, but one
cannot impress too forcibly the danger in attacking a bear by a
frontal move. Always approach a bear in the water either on one side
or from the rear. You can paddle up quite close to a bear in the
direction he is swimming without the least particle of danger, and a
more vital and telling spot to fire at cannot be got than the back
and base of the skull.