made a bed by breaking down
briers and gnawing down saplings, but he did not stay long at this
place when he again went on.

I soon came to another such bed and after finding several more, came
to one that was fresher than the others. I could see that the bed had
been made during the night. I now began to work my way along the
trail very cautiously with my gun in hand ready for action and my
heart in my mouth for I knew that Bruin would soon be on the move. I
worked my way through the jam at a snail's pace and soon heard the
rattle of the trap and could see the brush move not more than a
hundred feet away.

The undergrowth was so thick that I could get no distinct sight of
the bear but fired a shot more to let Uncle know that Bruin was on
the move than of any expectation of hitting him. When the gun cracked
the bear gave a snort like that of a frightened hog and I could hear
him tearing through the brush at a great rate. It was not long until
I heard Uncle shoot and in the course of two or three minutes I heard
him shoot again and knew that Bruin had given up the trap.

After I had gone along the trail quite a ways, I saw a few drops of
blood now and then and when I reached Uncle he was already skinning
the bear. We found three holes in the bear. Uncle's second shot which
was the finishing shot, hit the bear in the head. The shot that I
fired caught Bruin just forward of the hips and undoubtedly would
have killed him in time.

We skinned the bear and took the hind quarters, the skin and trap and
started for camp. I must say that I think this was the hardest stunt
of packing that I remember and every old trapper knows what sort of a
job of toting he often runs up against. We went down the run about
two miles before coming to the stream that our camp was on, and then
we had to go up this stream about four miles to camp. When we reached
the stream it was dark; there was no path and there was a great deal
of fallen timber and undergrowth along the creek, the creek winding
around from one side of the valley to the other. It was a continual
fording of the creek, climbing over fallen timber, through
undergrowth and what not. You know no one but a trapper would be
silly enough to do such a stunt in the dark. We arrived at camp about
9 o'clock, wet, tired and hungry. The next morning Uncle was still a
little sore but I was as good as new and ready for another job of the
same kind.

Some days later we had a fall of snow of