nd the first
place that Bruin had stopped and made a bed.

It is usually the case that a bear that has a trap on his foot will
not travel any great distance before they stop and make a bed and
then move a short distance and make another bed. Bruin now began to
act more natural, to his family. We began to think that we would soon
come to fresh signs at least, but were disappointed for we did not
follow the trail far, after we came onto his bed before two men's
tracks fell in and took up the trail.

After following for some time on the trail of the men and bear, we
came to where the bear had made another stop and we could see that
the bear's track was much fresher showing that it had stopped some
time. We expected that the men would divide here, one taking the
trail while the other worked on the side, but both men continued on
the same trail. After following the trail for three or four hundred
yards farther, we came onto another bed and this time the bear went
out on the jump and Bill said some cuss words about the men. It is
possible that I did too.

The trail here turned north. This took us into a section more thickly
settled and hunters more numerous. The greater part of the time there
was from one to two men on the trail ahead of us and all that was
left for us to do was to follow on as fast as we could. The second
night we were on the head of Salt Run and we followed the trail till
dark. We now had the bear trail to follow instead of the men as all
the men had left to go to their camps or homes. Bill said that we
would sleep "dash-dang" close to the trail after this, so we soon
found a large log to build a fire against. First we would build the
fire out a few feet from the log after scraping the snow away. Then
we would throw a few hemlock boughs over a pole laid in crotches and
then move the fire down against the log, throw a few boughs on the
ground where the fire had been moved from and the camp was complete
in a very few minutes.

We now began to fear that some one would get in ahead of us and kill
the bear and we would lose bear, trap and all. Bill said that we
would follow so "dash-darn" close that we would be up in time to
attend the funeral. We were so close up that we were no longer
bothered only a little while at a time as we would soon overtook any
one who hit the trail ahead of us and followed it.

The bear again turned east which took us across the road which runs
from Coudersport to Emporium in C