Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/190

 166 HISTORY OF diaries Knapp, Esq., an estimable friend and a liiglily re- spectable citizen of Deposit, has favored us with the following incidents. He says : — The following authentic accounts are extracted from the Cabinet of Natural History, and will convey a good idea of the manners and habits of some of the wild animals in the middle States. Both these events transpired in Delaware county. On the day of the present hunt, I was joined by a very particular friend and a great huntsman, and we took with us, for our day's sport, nine dogs, and two men to assist, leading the dogs. Five of these animals were experienced and well broken, but the other four were young, and about, for the first time, to range the forest after a bear. It may, perhaps, be worthy of remark, for the information of those who know but little of these animals, that old bears seldom tree, to clear themselves of dogs, if there is any pos- sibility of escape withoxit it; and when necessity compels them to this course, they will, on the approach of a human creature, in despite of every obstacle which may oppose, de- scend to the ground and take to flight ; young bears, however, will climb trees immediately, and often sufl'er hunters to ap- proach beneath them and shoot them. Knowing the present animal to be an old and formidable antagonist, and judging from the noise of the dogs that he was in a tree, my compan- ion thought it most advisable to destroy him at once, lest he should kill more of our dogs, as by this time he had killed one and disabled two others ; he accordingly approached with much caution, until within about eighty yards of the tree in which the bear had taken refuge, when, with much delibera- tion he fired at his head, and being a first-rate shot, I felt confi- dent that the animal would have fallen dead ; but to our great surprise the shot did not take effect, owing to the ball having struck and glanced from a small dead limb, which was imme-