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How I Killed A Bear
By Charles
Dudley Warner
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So many
conflicting accounts have appeared about my casual encounter with an
Adirondack bear last summer that in justice to the public, to myself,
and to the bear, it is necessary to make a plain statement of the
facts. Besides, it is so seldom I have occasion to kill a bear, that
the celebration of the exploit may be excused.
The encounter was unpremeditated on both sides. I was not hunting for a
bear, and I have no reason to suppose that a bear was looking for me.
The fact is, that we were both out blackberrying, and met by chance,
the usual way. There is among the Adirondack visitors always a great
deal of conversation about bears,--a general expression of the wish to
see one in the woods, and much speculation as to how a person would act
if he or she chanced to meet one. But bears are scarce and timid, and
appear only to a favored few.
It was a warm day in August, just the sort of day when an adventure of
any kind seemed impossible. But it occurred to the housekeepers at our
cottage--there were four of them--to send me to the clearing, on the
mountain back of the house, to pick blackberries. It was rather a
series of small clearings, running up into the forest, much overgrown
with bushes and briers, and not unromantic. Cows pastured there,
penetrating through the leafy passages from one opening to another, and
browsing among the bushes. I was kindly furnished with a six-quart
pail, and told not to be gone long.
Not from any predatory instinct, but to save appearances, I took a gun.
It adds to the manly aspect of a person with a tin pail if he also
carries a gun. It was possible I might start up a partridge; though how
I was to hit him, if he started up instead of standing still, puzzled
me. Many people use a shotgun for partridges. I
prefer the rifle: it makes a clean job of death, and does not
prematurely stuff the bird with globules of lead. The rifle was a
Sharps, carrying a ball cartridge (ten to the pound),--an excellent
weapon belonging to a friend of mine, who had intended, for a good many
years back, to kill a deer with it. He could hit a tree with it--if the
wind did not blow, and the atmosphere was just right, and the tree was
not too far off--nearly every time. Of course, the tree must have some
size. Needless to say that I was at that time no sportsman. Years ago I
killed a robin under the most humiliating circumstances. The bird was
in a low cherry-tree. I loaded a big shotgun pretty full, crept up
under the tree, rested the gun on the fence, with the muzzle more than
ten feet from the bird, shut both eyes, and pulled the trigger. When I
got up to see what had happened, the robin was scattered about under
the tree in more than a thousand pieces, no one of which was big enough
to enable a naturalist to decide from it to what species it belonged.
This disgusted me with the life of a sportsman. I mention the incident
to show that, although I went blackberrying armed, there was not much
inequality between me and the bear.
In this blackberry-patch bears had been seen. The summer before, our
colored cook, accompanied by a little girl of the vicinage, was picking
berries there one day, when a bear came out of the woods, and walked
towards them. The girl took to her heels, and escaped. Aunt Chloe was
paralyzed with terror. Instead of attempting to run, she sat down on
the ground where she was standing, and began to weep and scream, giving
herself up for lost. The bear was bewildered by this conduct. He
approached and looked at her; he walked around and surveyed her.
Probably he had never seen a colored person before, and did not know
whether she would agree with him: at any rate, after watching her a few
moments, he turned about, and went into the forest. This is an
authentic instance of the delicate consideration of a bear, and is much
more remarkable than the forbearance towards the African slave of the
well-known lion, because the bear had no thorn in his foot.
When I had climbed the hill,--I set up my rifle against a tree, and
began picking berries, lured on from bush to bush by the black gleam of
fruit (that always promises more in the distance than it realizes when
you reach it); penetrating farther and farther, through leaf-shaded
cow-paths flecked with sunlight, into clearing after clearing. I could
hear on all sides the tinkle of bells, the cracking of sticks, and the
stamping of cattle that were taking refuge in the thicket from the
flies. Occasionally, as I broke through a covert, I encountered a meek
cow, who stared at me stupidly for a second, and then shambled off into
the brush. I became accustomed to this dumb society, and picked on in
silence, attributing all the wood noises to the cattle, thinking
nothing of any real bear. In point of fact, however, I was thinking all
the time of a nice romantic bear, and as I picked, was composing a
story about a generous she-bear who had lost her cub, and who seized a
small girl in this very wood, carried her tenderly off to a cave, and
brought her up on bear's milk and honey. When the girl got big enough
to run away, moved by her inherited instincts, she escaped, and came
into the valley to her father's house (this part of the story was to be
worked out, so that the child would know her father by some family
resemblance, and have some language in which to address him), and told
him where the bear lived. The father took his gun, and, guided by the
unfeeling daughter, went into the woods and shot the bear, who never
made any resistance, and only, when dying, turned reproachful eyes upon
her murderer. The moral of the tale was to be kindness to animals.
I was in the midst of this tale when I happened to look some rods away
to the other edge of the clearing, and there was a bear! He was
standing on his hind legs, and doing just what I was doing,--picking
blackberries. With one paw he bent down the bush, while with the other
he clawed the berries into his mouth,--green ones and all. To say that
I was astonished is inside the mark. I suddenly discovered that I
didn't want to see a bear, after all. At about the same moment the bear
saw me, stopped eating berries, and regarded me with a glad surprise.
It is all very well to imagine what you would do under such
circumstances. Probably you wouldn't do it: I didn't. The bear dropped
down on his forefeet, and came slowly towards me. Climbing a tree was
of no use, with so good a climber in the rear. If I started to run, I
had no doubt the bear would give chase; and although a bear cannot run
down hill as fast as he can run up hill, yet I felt that he could get
over this rough, brush-tangled ground faster than I could.
The bear was approaching. It suddenly occurred to me how I could divert
his mind until I could fall back upon my military base. My pail was
nearly full of excellent berries, much better than the bear could pick
himself. I put the pail on the ground, and slowly backed away from it,
keeping my eye, as beast-tamers do, on the bear. The ruse succeeded.
The bear came up to the berries, and stopped. Not accustomed to eat out
of a pail, he tipped it over, and nosed about in the fruit, "gorming"
(if there is such a word) it down, mixed with leaves and dirt, like a
pig. The bear is a worse feeder than the pig. Whenever he disturbs a
maple-sugar camp in the spring, he always upsets the buckets of syrup,
and tramples round in the sticky sweets, wasting more than he eats. The
bear's manners are thoroughly disagreeable.
As soon as my enemy's head was down, I started and ran. Somewhat out of
breath, and shaky, I reached my faithful rifle. It was not a moment too
soon. I heard the bear crashing through the brush after me. Enraged at
my duplicity, he was now coming on with blood in his eye. I felt that
the time of one of us was probably short. The rapidity of thought at
such moments of peril is well known. I thought an octavo volume, had it
illustrated and published, sold fifty thousand copies, and went to
Europe on the proceeds, while that bear was loping across the clearing.
As I was cocking the gun, I made a hasty and unsatisfactory review of
my whole life. I noted, that, even in such a compulsory review, it is
almost impossible to think of any good thing you have done. The sins
come out uncommonly strong. I recollected a newspaper subscription I
had delayed paying years and years ago, until both editor and newspaper
were dead, and which now never could be paid to all eternity.
The bear was coming on.
I tried to remember what I had read about encounters with bears. I
couldn't recall an instance in which a man had run away from a bear in
the woods and escaped, although I recalled plenty where the bear had
run from the man and got off. I tried to think what is the best way to
kill a bear with a gun, when you are not near enough to club him with
the stock. My first thought was to fire at his head; to plant the ball
between his eyes: but this is a dangerous experiment. The bear's brain
is very small; and, unless you hit that, the bear does not mind a
bullet in his head; that is, not at the time. I remembered that the
instant death of the bear would follow a bullet planted just back of
his fore-leg, and sent into his heart. This spot is also difficult to
reach, unless the bear stands off, side towards you, like a target. I
finally determined to fire at him generally.
The bear
was coming on.
The contest seemed to me very different from anything at Creedmoor. I
had carefully read the reports of the shooting there; but it was not
easy to apply the experience I had thus acquired. I hesitated whether I
had better fire lying on my stomach or lying on my back, and resting
the gun on my toes. But in neither position, I reflected, could I see
the bear until he was upon me. The range was too short; and the bear
wouldn't wait for me to examine the thermometer, and note the direction
of the wind. Trial of the Creedmoor method, therefore, had to be
abandoned; and I bitterly regretted that I had not read more accounts
of offhand shooting.
For the bear was
coming on.
I tried to fix my last thoughts upon my family. As my family is small,
this was not difficult. Dread of displeasing my wife, or hurting her
feelings, was uppermost in my mind. What would be her anxiety as hour
after hour passed on, and I did not return! What would the rest of the
household think as the afternoon passed, and no blackberries came! What
would be my wife's mortification when the news was brought that her
husband had been eaten by a bear! I cannot imagine anything more
ignominious than to have a husband eaten by a bear. And this was not my
only anxiety. The mind at such times is not under control. With the
gravest fears the most whimsical ideas will occur. I looked beyond the
mourning friends, and thought what kind of an epitaph they would be
compelled to put upon the stone.
Something like this:
HERE LIE THE REMAINS
OF
----- -------
EATEN BY A BEAR
Aug. 20, 1877
It is a
very unheroic and even disagreeable epitaph. That "eaten by a bear" is
intolerable. It is grotesque. And then I thought what an inadequate
language the English is for compact expression. It would not answer to
put upon the stone simply "eaten"; for that is indefinite, and requires
explanation: it might mean eaten by a cannibal. This difficulty could
not occur in the German, where essen signifies the act of feeding by a
man, and fressen by a beast. How simple the thing would be in German!
HIER LIEGT
HOCHWOHLGEBOREN
HERR _____ _______
GEFRESSEN
Aug. 20, 1877
That explains itself. The well-born one was eaten by a beast, and
presumably by a bear,--an animal that has a bad reputation since the
days of Elisha.
The bear was coming on; he had, in fact, come on. I judged that he
could see the whites of my eyes. All my subsequent reflections were
confused. I raised the gun, covered the bear's breast with the sight,
and let drive. Then I turned, and ran like a deer. I did not hear the
bear pursuing. I looked back. The bear had stopped. He was lying down.
I then remembered that the best thing to do after having fired your gun
is to reload it. I slipped in a charge, keeping my eyes on the bear. He
never stirred. I walked back suspiciously. There was a quiver in the
hindlegs, but no other motion. Still, he might be shamming: bears often
sham. To make sure, I approached, and put a ball into his head. He
didn't mind it now: he minded nothing. Death had come to him with a
merciful suddenness. He was calm in death. In order that he might
remain so, I blew his brains out, and then started for home. I had
killed a bear!
Notwithstanding my excitement, I managed to saunter into the house with
an unconcerned air. There was a chorus of voices:
"Where are your blackberries?"
"Why were you gone so long?"
"Where's your pail?"
"I left the pail."
"Left the pail? What for?"
"A bear wanted it."
"Oh, nonsense!"
"Well, the last I saw of it, a bear had it."
"Oh, come! You didn't really see a bear?"
"Yes, but I did really see a real bear."
"Did he run?"
"Yes: he ran after me."
"I don't believe a word of it. What did you do?"
"Oh! nothing particular--except kill the bear."
Cries of "Gammon!" "Don't believe it!" "Where's the bear?"
"If you want to see the bear, you must go up into the woods. I couldn't
bring him down alone."
Having satisfied the household that something extraordinary had
occurred, and excited the posthumous fear of some of them for my own
safety, I went down into the valley to get help. The great bear-hunter,
who keeps one of the summer boarding-houses, received my story with a
smile of incredulity; and the incredulity spread to the other
inhabitants and to the boarders as soon as the story was known.
However, as I insisted in all soberness, and offered to lead them to
the bear, a party of forty or fifty people at last started off with me
to bring the bear in. Nobody believed there was any bear in the case;
but everybody who could get a gun carried one; and we went into the
woods armed with guns, pistols, pitchforks, and sticks, against all
contingencies or surprises,--a crowd made up mostly of scoffers and
jeerers.
But when I led the way to the fatal spot, and pointed out the bear,
lying peacefully wrapped in his own skin, something like terror seized
the boarders, and genuine excitement the natives. It was a no-mistake
bear, by George! and the hero of the fight well, I will not insist upon
that. But what a procession that was, carrying the bear home! and what
a congregation, was speedily gathered in the valley to see the bear!
Our best preacher up there never drew anything like it on Sunday.
And I must say that my particular friends, who were sportsmen, behaved
very well, on the whole. They didn't deny that it was a bear, although
they said it was small for a bear. Mr... Deane, who is equally good
with a rifle and a rod, admitted that it was a very fair shot. He is
probably the best salmon fisher in the United States, and he is an
equally good hunter. I suppose there is no person in America who is
more desirous to kill a moose than he. But he needlessly remarked,
after he had examined the wound in the bear, that he had seen that kind
of a shot made by a cow's horn.
This sort of talk affected me not. When I went to sleep that night, my
last delicious thought was, "I've killed a bear!"
Source: Romwell
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Hunting
Bears
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In Etling’s book,
Hunting
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