bear in the head and not in the body. I
discovered that Hill was very nervous and told him to take all the
time necessary to make a sure shot. When the gun cracked I saw a twig
fall that the gun had cut off fully three feet above the bear's head.
I urged Hill a few yards closer when he tried again with no better
results than the first shot. After making the third shot Hill said he
guessed that I had better shoot the bear as he thought something had
gone wrong with the sights on his gun. It was raining hard so I
killed the bear and took the entrails out, set the trap again and
left the bear lying on the ground. As it was a small bear we
concluded to take the bear to camp whole.

We hurried on to the next trap which was about a mile farther down
the stream. When we got to where the trap was set it was gone, but
the way things were torn up we could see that we had a bear this time
that was no small one.

The bear had worked down the stream, first climbing the hill on one
side of the stream until it became entangled in a jam of brush or old
logs, then back down the hill and up on the other side until it
became discouraged, when it would try the other side again. The bear
was continuously getting the clog fast under the roots of trees or
against old logs when it would gnaw the brush and tear them out by
the roots. It was also noticed where he would rake the bark on the
trees in trying to climb them, in hopes of escaping the drag that was
following him. The bear would gnaw and tear old logs to pieces
whenever the clog became fast against them.

This was all very interesting and exciting to Hill and he said he
would give Benson the laugh when we got to camp. Hill had made me
promise not to tell Benson how he had shot three times at the bear's
head and missed it.

The bear had worked his way down the stream nearly a mile from where
the trap was set, when we came upon him and shot him at once. Hill
declaring that it was getting too near night and raining too hard for
him to practice on shooting bear any more that day.

We skinned the bear, hung up the meat, took the trap and skin and
went back up the creek and set the trap in the same place again.
Taking the bear skin we started back to where we left the other bear.
After carrying the whole bear and bear skin until it was dark, we
hung the bear skin up in the crotch of a tree, taking the bear and
hurrying to camp at as lively a gait as we were able to make.

Hill said t