In the morning I left my son at the camp, and we started on towards the
harricane; and when we had went about a mile, we started a very large
bear, but we got along mighty slow on account of the cracks in the earth
occasioned 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 it without sneaking it along in the form that he put on, to make
a 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 harricane, 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
McDaniel pursued them, and I went on to where my other dogs were. I had
seen the track of the bear they were after, and I knowed he was a
screamer. I 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. I got in shooting distance of him and fired, but I was
all over in such a flutter from fatigue and running, that I couldn't
hold steady; but, however, I broke his shoulder, and he fell. I run up
and loaded my gun as quick as possible, and shot him again and killed
him. When I went to take out my knife to butcher him, I found I had lost
it in coming through the harricane. The vines and briers was so thick
that I would sometimes have to get down and crawl like a varment to get
through at all; and a vine had, as I supposed, 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 a good dog, or any part of his hunting-tools.
I now left McDaniel to butcher the bear, and I went after our horses,
and brought them as near as the nature of case would allow. I then took
our bags, and went back to where he was; and when we had skin'd the
bear, we fleeced off the fat and carried it to our horses at several
loads. We then packed it up on our horses, and had a heavy pack of it
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 answered
me, and we moved on in the direction to the camp. We had gone but a
little way when I heard my dogs make a warm start again; and I jumped
down from my horse and gave him up to my friend, and told him I 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.
I now was compel'd to move on more slowly; and was frequently falling
over logs, and into the cracks made by the earthquakes, so that I was
very much afraid I would break my gun. However I went on about three
miles, when I came to a good big creek, which I waded. It 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 I
felt hot enough. After I got over this creek and out of the cane, which
was very thick on all our creeks, I listened 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 to the
noise as I could, till I found the hill was too steep for me to climb,
and so I backed and went down the creek some distance till I came to a
hollow, and then took up that, till I come to a place where I could
climb up the hill. It was mighty dark, and was difficult to see my way
or any thing else. When I got up the hill, I found I had passed the
dogs; and so I turned and went to them. I found, when I got there, they
had treed the bear in a large forked poplar, and it was setting in the
fork.
I could see the lump, but not plain enough to shoot with any certainty,
as there was no moonlight; and so I set in to hunting for some dry brush
to make me a light; but I could find none, though I could find that the
ground was torn mightily to pieces by the cracks.
At last I thought I could shoot by guess, and kill him; so I pointed as
near the lump as I could, and fired away. But the bear didn't come he
only clomb up higher, and got out on a limb, which helped me to see him
better. I now loaded up again and fired, but this time he didn't move at
all. I commenced loading for a third fire, but the first thing I knowed,
the bear was down among my dogs, and they were fighting all around me.
I had my big butcher in my belt, and I had a pair of dressed buckskin
breeches on. So I took out my knife, and stood, determined, if he should
get hold of me, to defend myself in the best way I could. I stood there
for some time, and could now and then see a white dog I had, but the
rest of them, and the bear, which were dark coloured, I couldn't see at
all, it was so miserable dark. They still fought around me, and
sometimes within three feet of me; but, at last, the bear got down into
one of the cracks, that the earthquakes had made in the ground, about
four feet deep, and I could tell the biting end of him by the hollering
of my dogs. So I took my gun and pushed the muzzle of it about, till I
thought I had it against the main part of his body, and fired; but it
happened to be only the fleshy part of his foreleg. With this, he jumped
out of the crack, and he and the dogs had another hard fight around me,
as before. At last, however, they forced him back into the crack again,
as he was when I had shot.
I had laid down my gun in the dark, and I now began to hunt for it; and,
while hunting, I got hold of a pole, and I concluded I would punch him
awhile with that. I did so, and when I would punch him, the dogs would
jump in on him, when he would bite them badly, and they would jump out
again. I concluded, as he would take punching so patiently, it might be
that he would lie still enough for me to get down in the crack, and feel
slowly along till I could find the right place to give him a dig with my
butcher. So I got down, and my dogs got in before him and kept his head
towards them, till I got along easily up to him; and placing my hand on
his rump, felt for his shoulder, just behind which I intended to stick
him. I made a lounge with my long knife, and fortunately stuck him right
through the heart; at which he just sank down, and I crawled out in a
hurry. In a little time my dogs all come out too, and seemed satisfied,
which was the way they always had of telling me that they had finished
him.
I suffered very much that night with cold, as my leather breeches, and
every thing else I had on, was wet and frozen. But I managed to get my
bear out of this crack after several hard trials, and so I butchered
him, and laid down to try to sleep. But my fire was very bad, and I
couldn't find any thing that would burn well to make it any better; and
I concluded I should freeze, if I didn't warm myself in some way by
exercise. So I got up, and hollered a while, and then I would just jump
up and down with all my might, and throw myself into all sorts of
motions. But all this wouldn't do; for my blood was now getting cold,
and the chills coming all over me. I was so tired, too, that I could
hardly walk; but I thought I would do the best I could to save my life,
and then, if I died, nobody would be to blame. So I went to a tree about
two feet through, and not a limb on it for thirty feet, and I would
climb up it to the limbs, and then lock my arms together around it, and
slide down to the bottom again. This would make the insides of my legs
and arms feel mighty warm and good. I continued this till daylight in
the morning, and how often I clomb up my tree and slid down I don't
know, but I reckon at least a hundred times.
In the morning I got my bear hung up so as to be safe, and then set out
to hunt for my camp. I found it after a while, and McDaniel and my son
were very much rejoiced to see me get back, for they were about to give
me up for lost. We got our breakfasts, and then secured our meat by
building a high scaffold, and covering it over. We had no fear of its
spoiling, for the weather was so cold that it couldn't.
We now started after my other bear, which had caused me so much trouble
and suffering; and before we got him, we got a start after another, and
took him also. We went on to the creek I had crossed the night before
and camped, and then went to where my bear was, that I had killed in the
crack. When we examined the place, McDaniel said he wouldn't have gone
into it, as I did, for all the bears in the woods.
We took the meat down to our camp and salted it, and also the last one
we had killed; intending, in the morning, to make a hunt in the
harricane again.
We prepared for resting that night, and I can assure the reader I was in
need of it. We had laid down by our fire, and about ten o'clock there
came a most terrible earthquake, which shook the earth so, that we were
rocked about like we had been in a cradle. We were very much alarmed;
for though we were accustomed to feel earthquakes, we were now right in
the region which had been torn to pieces by them in 1812, and we thought
it might take a notion and swallow us up, like the big fish did Jonah.
In the morning we packed up and moved to the harricane, where we made
another camp, and turned out that evening and killed a very large bear,
which made _eight_ we had now killed in this hunt.
The next morning we entered the harricane again, and in little or no
time my dogs were in full cry. We pursued them, and soon came to a thick
cane-brake, in which they had stop'd their bear. We got up close to him,
as the cane was so thick that we couldn't see more than a few feet. Here
I made my friend hold the cane a little open with his gun till I shot
the bear, which was a mighty large one. I killed him dead in his tracks.
We got him out and butchered him, and in a little time started another
and killed him, which now made _ten_ we had killed; and we know'd we
couldn't pack any more home, as we had only five horses along; therefore
we returned to the camp and salted up all our meat, to be ready for a
start homeward next morning.
The morning came, and we packed our horses with the meat, and had as
much as they could possibly carry, and sure enough cut out for home. It
was about thirty miles, and we reached home the second day. I had now
accommodated my neighbour with meat enough to do him, and had killed in
all, up to that time, fifty-eight bears, during the fall and winter.
As soon as the time come for them to quit their houses and come out
again in the spring, I took a notion to hunt a little more, and in
about one month I killed forty-seven more, which made one hundred and
five bears I had killed in less than one year from that time.