| The Heart of the Alleghenies | |||
| Chapter 2 -In the Haunts of the Black Bear | |||
| IN THE HAUNTS OF THE BLACK BEAR Bruins "Usin-Places" -- Pointers -- A Hunting Party -- Stately Forests-- Wid Medford -- Sticking a Bear -- Trials of Camping-Out -- A Picture -- Frosted Mountains -- Amid the Firs -- Natural History -- In Close Quarters -- Scenic Features -- The Drive Begins -- An Ebon Mountain -- Judyculla [Judaculla] Old Field -- Calling in the Drivers -- A Snow Storm -- The Vale of Pigeon -- A Picturesque Party -- Through Laurel Thickets -- At Bay -- The Death Shot -- Sam's Knob -- Bear Traps -- An Old Hunter's Observation |
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| page 45 |
"The black bear, native to North America, still exists in large numbers on the wildest ranges fo the southern mountains..." |  |
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| page 46 |
"For bear-driving in the Black mountains, the best place for a stranger who really wishes to kill a bear, and who feels himself equal to so arduous a tramp, is "big Tom" Wilson's, on Cane River. Black mountains ; Cane River ; Swannanoa ; Burnsville ; Bakersville ; Cataluche ; French Broad ; Tennessee Bald ; Professor Mitchell |  |
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| page 47 |
"Besides the usual equipments carried by every hunter , it would be well to take a rubber blanket and have the guide carry an ax." Santeelah ; Tellico ; Alleghanies |  |
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| page 48 |
"The mountain straggler often sees by the trail he follows..he has some idea of a hunter's camp." Old Bald ; Caney Fork |  |
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| page 49 |
"Where the trail enters the water the ground is level on one bank, and here we decided to kindle our fire, and, as the air was quite chilly, bearing indications of a storm, to erect a light shelter." Beech Flats ; wahoo tree |  |
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| page 50 |
'The rest of the pack were either standing around, looking absently into the fire, or had already stretched themselves out in close proximity to it." Balsam |  |
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| page 51 |
"'What I don't know about these mountings,' said he..'haint of enny profit to man or devil.'" French Broad ; Dark Ridge ; Hell's Half-acre |  |
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| page 52 |
"The brute never stopped, but I knowed I'd hit him, for I had a dead sight on his head." |  |
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| page 53 |
"Owing to the strange time of the year for a thunder storm, we were slow in realizing that one was brooding, but repeated peals and long rumbling echoes, preceded by vivid flashes of light in the northern sky, soon convinced us of this fact." |  |
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| page 54 | "No brush could have conveyed to the canvas the snarling of the dogs, the laugh of a strong-lunged hunter or Wild's starling imitation of the hoot of the owl." |  |
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| page 55 | "The night rain, turning to sleet on the summits of the mountains, had encased the black balsam forests, covering the Spruce Ridge and Great Divide, in armors of ice." Spruce Ridge ; Great Divide ; Richland ; Newfound ; Old Bald ; Lone Balsam; Cold Spring Mountain |  |
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| page 56 | "Not one of those bear hunters had ever seen a shot of like nature, and the unostentatious young sportsman was raised to a high notch in their estimation." Whiteside Mountain ; Lone Balsam |  |
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| page 57 | "We now reached the edge of the great forests of the balsam firs--forests which mantle nearly every peak above 6000 feet." black balsam trees |  |
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| page 58 | ""Its bark and berries taste like the kernel of a peach-pit, and are frequently mixed by the mountaineers in their whisky, as a bitters having the flavor of peach brandy." Pigeon River ; Shawnee haw ; Peru tree |  |
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| page 59 | "Whatever Wid Medford says on natural history can be accepted as truth gained...experience, close observation, retained by a good memory, and imparted..without any incentive for exaggeration." Spruce Ridge |  |
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| page 60 | "Now, I inquired with considerable interest, 'will a black bear attack a man?'" |  |
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| page 61 | "I didn't know what the devil ter do" |  |
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| page 62 | 'The light, so strongly shed on the open meadows beyond the outskirts, is lost; the thickly set trees intercept it and one's sight from detecting that an open expanse lies so near." Cold Spring mountain ; Spruce Ridge ; Great Divide ; Judyculla |  |
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| page 63 | "This trail is as crooked as a rail fence, and as hard to follow as it would be to follow closely the convolutions of a rail fence." Great Divide |  |
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| page 64 | "Did you ever notice, in places along the bank of a wide woodland river, after a spring flood, the great piles of huge drift-logs, sometimes covering an entire field, and heaped as high as a house? Hell's Half-acre is like one of those fields." the Gulfs ; Hell's Half-acre ; Chimbleys and Shinies ; Richland |  |
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| page 65 | "He feels all the inspiration of the music, but mingled with it are thoughts of a practical nature, and a sportsman's kindling ardor to see the varmint that rings the bell." |  |
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| page 66 | "Suiting the action to the word, the old hunter laid his flintlock rifle across his knees, and with deliberation fixed the priming anew in the pan." |  |
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| page 67 | "Except when the king of winter, puffing his hollow cheeks, wraps the sharp summits in the pure white mantle of the snow, or locks them in frosted armor, the Great Divide..rises an ebon mountain." Great Divide (Younaguska) ; Pigeon river ; Caney Fork ; Richland ; Junaluska mountain ; Plott mountain ; Great hogback ; Cold mountain ; Blue Ridge mountains ; Great Smokies ; Pisgah mountain ; Lickstone |  |
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| page 68 | "It has every feature peculiar to a clearing left for nature to train into its primitive wildness." Great Divide ; Great Smokies ; Judyculla old field ; Brier Patch gap |  |
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| page 69 | "We now all fired our guns in order to bring the hunters and hounds as soon as possible to us." Pigeon river ; Grassy gap |  |
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| page 70 | "Snow began steadily falling--that soft, flaky sort of snow, which seems to descend without a struggle...without warning suddenly ceases." Pigeon river; Balsam mountains |  |
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| page 71 | "It was the prospect of a sunrise on mountains of snow that called us forth." Cold Spring mountain ; Cold mountain ; Caney Fork ; Rich mountain |  |
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| page 72 | "The rhododendrons and kalmias are perfect net-works. In them a man is in as much danger of becoming irrecoverably entangled unto death as a fly in a spider's web." |  |
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| page 73 | "The fight between two dogs on a village street affords great interest to a mixed crowd...but of all fights that between a pack of ravenous dogs and a frenzied bear is the most exciting." |  |
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| page 74 | [Illustration] THE FINAL STRUGGLE |  |
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| page 75 | "During the melee that for the next minute ensured, one savage hound was caught in the clutches of the bear and hugged and bitten to death." |  |
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| page 76 | "The true hunter is not prone to pursuing any other than open warfare against the black bear." |  |
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| page 77 | "If not killed he is effectually pinned until the merciless trapper unintentionally shows some mercy by ending his struggles." |  |
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