g
is a nuisance. This is because the dog was not properly trained.

To get back to the bear trapping: In the locality where I was
trapping, bear were not very plentiful except in season, when there
was a crop of beechnuts, although there was but little other shack,
such as chestnuts and acorns. However, some seasons there would be an
abundance of black cherries which the bears are very fond of. I set
three traps at the head of a broad basin where there were three or
four springs and the next day I set the balance of my bear traps;
then I built a few deadfalls for coons and set a few steel traps for
fox.

As I had seen several fresh bear tracks crossing the stream, where I
had been setting the coon traps, on the morning of the third day
after I had set the first three bear traps, I thought that I would go
and look after them. They were about a mile and a half from camp and
when I came in sight of the first trap I saw that I had a bear. You
may be sure that I again felt like a mighty hunter. I was more
pleased over this one bear than I was over the eight bear we had
caught when I was with Mr. Harris, because now I was the trapper and
not Mr. Harris. The bear was a good sized female. She had become fast
only a short distance from where the trap was set. I shot and skinned
the bear then cut the carcass into quarters, bent down a sapling and
hung a quarter of the bear on this. With a forked pole I raised the
sapling up until the meat was out of the way of small animals that
might happen along.

After hanging up three of the quarters in this manner, leaving one to
take to camp, I took the lungs and liver and put them in the bait
pen. The bait had all been eaten and I was quite sure it had been
done after the bear was caught, as a bear immediately loses its
appetite after placing its foot in a good, strong trap. I really
expected to find another bear in one of the other traps as they were
not far away, but the other traps were undisturbed.

The next morning I thought I would take some bait from camp and bait
the trap where I had put the offals from the bear, fearing that
should a bear come along it might not eat the bait that was in the
pen. You may imagine my surprise when I came in sight of the trap to
see another bear fast in the trap.

After killing the bear I removed the entrails and started to carry
the bear to camp. It was a cub and I could carry it without cutting
it in parts. I was just about to start for camp