ross the
ridge and he fired both barrels of his rifle at him but the bear was
so far away that he could not reach him. The bear now crossed the
ridge in the direction of Windfall Run, a branch of the Cross Fork
and toward a large windfall. We followed the bear a short distance in
to the windfall. Briers and brush were so thick that it was almost
impossible to work our way along in the brush and one could scarcely
see ten feet ahead. We had followed the trail but a short distance
when we could hear Bruin whining like a little puppy and soon we
could see him sitting up on his haunches and keeping up the whine. We
soon put an end to his troubles. When we removed the bear's entrails,
we found that one of the shots that we fired at him at the beginning
of the hunt, had passed through the lungs but had not struck any
large artery or any vital point. But the wound had weakened him so
that he was no longer able to make his way through the thick briars
and brush. We had two days of sport but now the real work began.

We were about three miles from camp and any hunter who has toted a
three hundred pound bear or a good big deer, lashed to a pole and
where the route was up and down steep hills, knows what sort of a job
he has on his hands. But comrades, we were not as old at that time as
we now are and we could tote a bear or deer as easy then as we could
a rabbit now.

[Illustration: WOODCOCK AND HIS CATCH, FALL 1904.]

Mr. Howard stayed with me for about two weeks and we had other bear
hunts and killed two other bear and we did it almost without knowing
that there was a bear within ten miles of us. We also got five or six
deer during Mr. Howard's stay with me. Deer were as plentiful in
those days as rabbits. Comrades, look over the accompanying picture
and note the difference at the camp of a trapper from what you can
imagine it was about one's hunting camp at the time we write of.

CHAPTER X.

Incidents Connected with Bear Trapping.

Several years ago, I was trapping for bears on the East Fork of the
Sinnemahoning River. I usually went on horse back as far as I could
when tending the traps. But boys, don't be bad, as I was, for this
was on Sunday that I went to look at the traps. I found the bait-pen
of the first one torn down, bait gone and everything showed plainly
that Bruin had been there. As I had no bait at hand, I went to the
next trap. I found things quite different, for the old bear had
surely "put his foo