e day was he roused
out of one of these reveries. He had gone out to visit some traps which
he had set in a place where he had noticed the tracks of wild cats.
While going along through a dense forest with his gun strapped on his
back he got so lost in thought that his naturally shrewd instincts as a
hunter, sharpened by practice, seemed to have deserted him, and he
nearly stumbled over a huge, old she bear and a couple of young cubs.
With a growl of rage at being thus disturbed the fierce brute rushed at
him, and quickly broke up his reverie and brought him back to a sense of
present danger. To unstrap his gun in time for its successful use was
impossible, but the ever-ready sharp pointed knife was available, and so
Oowikapun, accustomed to such battles, although never before taken so
unexpectedly, sprang back to the nearest tree, which fortunately for him
was close at hand. With a large tree at his back, and a good knife in
his hand, an experienced Indian has the advantage on his side and can
generally kill his savage antagonist without receiving a wound, but if
attacked by a black bear in the open plain, when armed with only a
knife, the hunter very rarely kills his enemy without receiving a
fearful hug or some dangerous wounds.

One of the first bits of advice which an old, experienced Indian hunter
gives to a young hunter, be he white or Indian, who goes out anxious to
kill a bear, or who may possibly while hunting for other game be
attacked by one, is to get his back up against a tree so large that if
the bear is not killed by the bullet of his gun, he may be in the best
possible position to fight him with his knife. It will be no child's
play, for a wounded, maddened bear is a fierce foe. The black bear's
method of trying to kill his human antagonist is quite different from
that of the grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains. The grizzly strikes
out with his dreadful claws with such force that he can tear a man to
pieces and is able to crush down a horse under his powerful blows, but
the black bear tries to get the hunter in his long, strong, armlike fore
legs, and then crush him to death. The hug of a bear, as some hunters
know to their cost, is a warm, close embrace. Some who, by the quick,
skillful use of their knives, or by the prompt arrival of a rescue
party, have been rescued from the almost deathly hug, have told me how
their ribs have been broken and their breastbones almost crushed in by
the terribl