| There are times when the hunters will face some | | | | the rock. |
| danger, specially the danger from the wild animal's | | | | Pointing my gun barrel ahead, I cautiously peered |
| attach such as bear. What will be the best way | | | | into the cave. My heart came into my mouth for |
| for him to do? | | | | I detected movement in the dark recesses. I did |
| My companion looked at me, I looked at him, and | | | | not lose complete control, however, although the |
| the same idea hit us at the same moment. What | | | | gun barrel wobbled so that I could not center the |
| would have happened if we had hit that bear? | | | | sights on the animal. I don't like to shoot unless I |
| Would we have killed it or would we have | | | | am reasonably certain of my target, and by the |
| wounded it? In either case it would have fallen | | | | time I had settled down enough to do serious |
| and landed in or near our canoe. A dead bear | | | | work with the gun, I had recovered composure |
| would have broken the canoe in half, falling from | | | | enough to identify my game as a porcupine. What |
| a hundred feet. But suppose the bear had been | | | | a letdown! I never saw a bear or a deer that day, |
| wounded? Think of the situation. Two men and a | | | | although I found a wild bee tree in a swampy |
| wounded bear struggling in the water within eight | | | | area that I could use as a bait at some later date, |
| feet of each other. What a scene for a movie | | | | to attract a bear to me as I waited in a stand |
| shot! | | | | nearby. I never did. |
| The best of us will make mistakes of judgment | | | | You probably don't know it, but I am a reformed |
| at the unexpected sight of game. Luckily we both | | | | poacher. No, the wardens didn't reform me. I |
| missed the bear. It took us nearly an hour to find | | | | woke up to the fact that such actions are not fair |
| a landing place and to climb to the spot where the | | | | to you boys, to the rest of the guides, or to the |
| bear had been. We didn't go deer hunting that | | | | people of Maine. I have even stooped so low as |
| evening. | | | | to sell deer to unsuccessful hunters, but in some |
| Another time a small group of us went on a | | | | of these cases it was sympathy for them rather |
| combined deer and bear hunt near the town of | | | | than money that influenced me. I hate to see any |
| Emden, down state, where bears had been doing | | | | hunter who has hunted diligently for a week or so |
| some damage. Now bear hunting is a great sport, | | | | go back home without his deer. Again, I believe |
| but hunting Maine bears is a tough proposition. I | | | | that any man who is willing to spend his money |
| am not good enough to risk my guiding reputation | | | | here hunting should have some concrete return. I |
| by handling bear hunters. If you think our bears | | | | have no sympathy for the man who sits around |
| are no different from other bears, just ask some | | | | camp all day, drinking and playing poker instead of |
| of the best bear hunters in the south what they | | | | getting out into the woods and enjoying our great |
| think of our product. There are some pretty | | | | out-of-doors. I don't care whether he goes home |
| cagey animals in the Maine woods-and they are | | | | empty-handed or not; he has got just what he |
| not all wild. | | | | came for. But the case of the unsuccessful one |
| We split up and started to hunt, each in his own | | | | who has hunted diligently is different. |
| individual manner. I was not too experienced with- | | | | If a hunter see the threat from a wild animal, it is |
| bear hunting, yet I knew the chances of seeing a | | | | better for him to keep himself in a hiding place |
| night-loving bear roaming around in the daytime | | | | until the threat pass. It is better than if he has to |
| were pretty slim. Traveling through the woods, I | | | | face the wild animal face to face which can cause |
| checked signs of both deer and bears. There | | | | him into trouble. Deer hunt is a hobby which is |
| were plenty of both and the strong, unmistakable | | | | exciting to the people who can enjoy it and take |
| smell of bears was in the air. I poked around in | | | | the great fun of it, even he can get the deer or |
| the likely hiding places, finally coming to a large | | | | not for the day. |
| boulder where there was a good-sized cave under | | | | |