UC-NRLF SK j $B 33 7bl S'S HE BLACK BEAR of Pennsylvania (Vrsus Americanus) Compiled by Henry W. Shoemaker With Chapters by John C. French AuJior of "The Passenger Pigeon In Pennsylvania" Altoona Published bj the Time* Tribune Company Copyright, 1921, All Rightt Reserved Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/blackbearofpennsOOshoerich Edwin Grimes and Son, Edwin, Jr. (Frontispiece) The Black Bear of Pennsylvania (Ursus Americanus^ Compiled by Henry W. Shoemaker With Chapters by John C. French Author of "The Passenger Pigeon in Pennsylvania' ''The Bear is capable of some degree of instruction, there are few but have seen it dance in awkward measure upon its hind feet, to the voice or instrument of its leader; and it must be confessed, that the dancer is is often found to be the best performer of the two. I am told that it is first taught to perform in this manner by setting it upon hot plates of iron and then playing to it while in this uneasy situation." — Oliver Goldsmith Altoona Published by the Times Tribune Company Copyright, 1921, AU Rights Reserved v\ , - -i To Hon. William C. Sproul Governor of Pennsylvania Lover of All Outdoor Sports and Fair Play With Whom the Case of Ursus Americanus Rests These Pages Are Respectfully Dedicated 468537 Index Frontispiece Introduction --_--__ The Alusquaw or Black Bear - - - - A Few Sidelights on Bears _ . _ _ Jake Zimmerman's Reminiscences Reminiscences by Henry Wren - - - Mr. Karstetter's Views - - Bear Stories by E. A. Schwenk - - - Bear Facts from Pennsylvania Newspapers A Queer Bear Trap - - - - - Says He Saw White Faced Bear in Woods Took Bear for Rock _ _ _ _ Treed Four Hours by Bears - - - Charles Slutterbeck Kills 26'5-lb. Bear in Cornfield - - - Boy Alone in Woods Kills 503-lb. Bruin - Bear Plays High Jinks _ _ . . Columbia County Boy, 18, Kills 250-lb. Bear First Bear of Season Shot in Seven Moun- tains -----_ "Lew" Fosnot's Memories - - ■ - Big Bear Killed by Plunters Near Olean in Jim Jacobs' Old Hunting Country More from Jake Zimmerman _ _ _ "Poody" Lovett's Bear - _ - _ Last Bear in Blue Mountains _ _ _ Linglestown Man Has Hot Fight with Large Bear ------ Bears in Somerset County in Years Past Game Law Revision a Delicate Task Best Bear Story ______ 11 31 57 G2 62 63 68 68 69 70 71 72 73 71 75 76 78 79 83 84 87 89 00 93 Introduction "All wondered that in peace I took my rest — That, all unharmed by deadly snake or bear, My tender body lay unconscious there." — Quintus Horatius Flaccus. IT is a great pleasure to present the story of the Musquaw, or Black Bear of Pennsylvania, from the gifted pen of Mr, John C. French, premier nat- urahst of Northern Pennsylvania, with chapters con- tribu^ted by sudi observing woodsmen and nature lovers as Jacob W. Zimmerman, Daniel Mark, A. D. Karstetter 'and others. These pages contain, in con- densed form, a reasonably complete record of the habits and customs, appearance and folk lore of the Black Bear, as well as some of the achievements of the men who have hunted bitni. An animal of such unique and curious interest deserves protection, and it is to be regretted that selfish minded persons seek ■to use him to divert attention from the depredations made on live stock* by half wild, unlicensed dogs. Pennsylvania set a noteworthy example to the whole world of sport by protecting bears and forbidding the use of steel traps and bear pens. This law was passed in 1915, at a time v/hen the Black Bear of Pennsylvania was on the verge of extinction, from wholesale trapping at all times of the year. For example, the "Democrat", of Lock Haven, Clinton County, in 1901, told of a family of hunters residing at Shinto wn, in that County, Tripp by name, who had trapped six bears that Autumn. Bears would soon pass out if that rate was allowed to continue in- definitely. Another danger now confronts the bear tribe, lack of food supply. TTiis was threatened by repeated forest fires desolating their favorite feeding grounds, but now, even in the most favored localities, the chestnut blight has rennoved one of the chief sources of their fall diet. It is hoped that hunters wmII not wage any systematic warfare on bears, either in fact or by propaganda, and that 'the present wise game laws protecting them will hold in force in- definitely. Pennsylvania cannot afford to reverse her- self by turning the bears over to the mercy of the pot hunters, as will be the case if the Wells Bill should become law. The compiler's thanks are due to the hunters and naturalists who have made their store of information available for reproduction on the ensuing pages. Their experience, varied and remarkable as it has been, will prove of interest to all who love the great out-doors and honest, manly sport. May the shadow of Musquaw never grow less except on Candlemas Day ! Henry W. Shoemaker. 1923 Spruce Street, Philadelphia. Lincoln's Birthday, 1921. The Musquaw, or Black Bear Ursus Americanus By John C. French, Roulette, Potter County SECTION I "There are beasts in these mountains More hard to ensnare, And more dangerous, too. Than the wolf or the bear." No; we do not mean the "moonshiners" plying their "inalienable" avocation; but only the degenerate cur dogs that have learned to kill sheep. Mendel's law of descent illustrates the atavistic principles that govern the primogenature of beings produced from cross-breeding and unregulated in-breeding of all domestic "animals. The dog has developed from being a near-cousin to the wolf, and has become the reliable protector of man and guardian of our treasured flocks and herds. But many curs, pressed by the pangs of hunger, lack stamina and character to long resist the wolfiish inher- itance, which is, "slay and eat". Therefore, the cur dog kills our sheep, in his lust for blood — his inherit- ance since the creation of the world. The gray wolf is ex-tinct in Pennsylvania ; for many years he was the alibi for outlaw dogs. The black bear now serves as the alibi for the destructive dogs, in a vast number of instances. 11 12 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA When a black bear kills a sheep, he does it in a bold and a business-like niianner, for food, eats and departs like a philosopher. True, he may return when hungry and select another sheep for his repast, continuing to repeat the process for some weeks; but he kills only enough for his need, and never destroys wan- tonly for sjx)rt or pastime, as dogs do. Again, while bruin lingers in the vicinity of sheep, none of them is in danger from ravages of the outlaw dogs, for these cowards keep away from bears, and avoid 'the trail of a ibear. They are careful to observe the dictates of their creed! As insect destroyers bears are of prime importance to the maturing forest, and they are of economic value to preserve the balance designed by the Creator. So we design to introduce our bear and describe his char- acter. Then, farther along, we shall show his soul before your eyes, as it has been seen by his human friends in the forests, from the days that "Grand- father Bear" befriended Redmen who sought advice, 'to our own times. "The spirit of man came upon earth and sought the bear for advice: Ho, grandfather, our children have no 'bodies ! The bear then sent them to the pigeon for incarnation." The Musquaw or Bla:ck Bear, (Ursus Americanus), is native of Pennsylvania and Canada and most of the other States of the Union. In the far west a brown variety of the same species is found. In gait the animal is plantigrade, and is capable of m OTIS J. P. LYMAN THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 13 lifting itself on its great hind feet and of remaining erect with the greatest ease. When attacked in close contact, it rears up and strikes terrific blows with its fore-^aws, which often cause dreadful in- juries to its antagonist. The bear's paws are armed with long, sharp talons which are not capable of reaction, but which tear through the flesh and are most efficient weapons of offense when urged by the powerful muscles which give force to the bear's body and limbs. Should the adversary elude the quick, heavy blows of the paws, the bear endeavors to seize the foe around the body and" by pressure to overcome its enemy. In guarding itself from blows aimed at itself the bear is adroit and wards off the fiercest strokes with the dexterity of a trained pugilist. The venerable Otis J. P. Lymian, born in 1836, now living at Roulette, Pa., told the following: "About fifty years ago I had a scrap with a very large bear, but I did not finish it, either first or second best. I was working on a lumber job on the Wykoff Branch of Cowley Run, drawing pine logs to the slide at the top of the hill, and starting them down the slide to Preston's mill. /'The snow was two feet deep on the level hilltop and I had rolled a log of 600 board feet into the loose snow, and was bothered to get it started down the slide. My dog began barking out in the woods and laurel, as if he had treed a man, as was his bad habit 14 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA of doing. So I used strong language and bade him to quit barking, which he did. "Presently my horses began stamping, turned around and ran away, getting fast against a tree, one of them trying to go forward on each side of it. I went to see about untangling them, and 'there stood a bear with yellow legs, within four rods of me ! The bear wanted to come right where I stood ! With my pick-lever I stepped right up to him, thinking I could kill a bear with a club ! "The bear was determined to cross the slide, and he came right along toward me and put his fore-feet on the banking log opposite me, growling a little and showing his white teeth to me. 1 told him to, stay right where he was; that I could kill and carry home any black bear, with yellow legs, in Pennsylvania, using nny lever as a club, for the purpose. '*But he only .grinned harder, so I struck him as hard as I could, right on the head ! Or I tried to, and hit only his arm, as he fended off my blow, nearly jerking the pick-lever from my hands, and growled at me, as only a bear can growl, springing up the bank, opposite, growling, 'You better leave me alone !' " SECTION II Several hunters' camps in the Counties of Potter and McKelan were visited by W. R. Grimes, son of the late Edwin R. Grimes, during the recent hunting season, but he doubts that fifty bears were slain in ONE OF "TRAPPER" E. N. WOODCOCK'S BIG BEARS, POTTER COUNTY THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 15 both Counties. He believes that 26 were killed by hunters within the borders of Potter County, during 1920; that no more than the increase have been de- stroyed, although many bears were driven from the County by the great number of hunters here; that most of them will soon return. The diet of bears is of mixed character and they are capable of sustaining existence on either a vege- table or a purely animal diet, to ibe either carnivorous or vegetarian at will They are harmless anirrtals at most times, when undisturbed, contenting themselves with fruit, honey, nuts, roots, snails and insects, and similar articles of diet, rarely attacking the higher animals, except when driven by dire necessity. In combat with man, the bear exhibits a fearful ingenuity and "the strength of ten men and the sense of twelve," he directs attack upon the head of his antagonist and may strike off the scalp at one blow. Then use teeth instead of claws on the prostrate foe whose senses seem' blunted, while under the bear. The extreme tenacity of life and the fearful energy which a wounded bear compresses into its last mo- ments of existence reveal a most terrible antagonist. Unless struck in brain or 'heart, the bear is more to be feared when wounded severely than when no in- jury has been inflicted, and it wreaks dire injury on its foe during the last moments of existence. Quiescent in apparent ddath, the stunned bear may revive and do great harm to an incautious hunter who 16 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA carelessly approaches his fallen victim before life has ceased. To the hunter, an angry bear is a formidable ant?ag- onist ; and 'although there have been instances where a man has conquered a bear in fair hand-to-hand con- flict, there are few animals which a hunter would not rather oppose, deprived of fire-arms, with only knife or hatchet, than the black bear. On a few occasions a ioolhardy person has ventured to attack and kill a bear in single combat, without firearms, using a club, axe or canthook, but the successful ending of such issues did not establish a new and popular variety' of sport, nor did these experienced men thereafter encourage their friends to attack the bear, unless pro- vided with la gun — a reliable rifle. The great bear slayer of Potter County, Leroy Lyman, born 1821, died in 1886, told our High School boys of his experience, advising them to be very dis- crete in all dealings with the bear. Mr. Lyman was a large, active man, 74 inches tall, with strong, capable hands and limbs. He caught a medium sized bear in a steel trap and decided to kill it with a heavy club; so setting his gun against a tree, he cut a club 6 ft. long, and rapped bruin on the head. Then action became furious. The bear jerked its fcK>t out of the trap and chased Mr. Lyman round •and round a big hemlock tree, until both became tired. After a dozen blows with the handspike the bear was finally stunned and quickly killed. Mr. Lyman went home, chuckling, "Never again; no, never again!" THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 17 An adult bear weighs 200 to 300 pounds in Sum- mer, when thin, and 400 pounds in Autumn, if fat. Sometimes a 500-pound bear has been reported in late autumn or early Winter; but such specimens are ex- tremely rare. Chestnuts are bruin's favorite food, and branches of trees, loaded with ripe nuts, are lop- ped off, for his breakfast. The bear sheds its fur in April and grows a Sum- mer suit of glossy black hair. This is shed in October and the Winter suit of thick fur takes its place and warms the bear. The late Edwin Grimes, (1830-1919), told of killing a 450-pound bear. Seeing the huge animal walking on a log, Mr. Grimes shot it through the neck. Cry- ing ''O-o-oh", the bear slid off the log and lay prone, with head resting on its fore-paws. ^Another bullet was then sent through its neck, and the old hunter approached the bear. His dog, Mia j or, sniffed at the bear's heels, leaping back and snapping viciously. The hunter said : *'Why don't you take hold of him. Major?" Thus encouraged, the dog bit harder, leap- ing back, quickly, and barking in :a low key, as though angry and fearful. On bruin's neck, the hair rose in anger, so the hunter sent another bullet crashing through its brain. The more experienced hunters are ever the most cautious when a bear has been mortally wounded. The skin of this great bear became a beautiful robe, with long silky hair and thick fur, that has often kept 18 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA the writer warm, through the coldest nights of Winter, in the Potter County mountains. SECTION III No doubt bears live to be twenty years old, or more, in their Avild environment, if not injured or slain by man. It is the older male bears which prey upon cattle, but the females and younger males may learn to kill sheep and hogs, if pressed for food, to sustain existence; but danger from them is remote. When bears have taken to the business of stealing cattle, sheep or hogs, there will be no peace in the neighbor- hood, until freed from the presence of these mai^aud- ers. The taste of blood intoxicates the bear and he seems to become an inebriate, while opportunity re- mains to satisfy his desire for the particular food on which he has banqueted at will; but such cases are rare, and they should be slain as soon as may be pos- sible, in every case, regardless of protective law or closed season. Furthermore, a reward should be paid by the Commonwealth to the slayer of an outlaw bear, when his depredations in any farming community serve to identify him. Such bears are dangerous to people. During the month of June, bears are very thin and neither their flesh nor fur has any value. They are especially fie'rce at this time, so people should keep aloof from forest coverts where the female bear guards her playful offspring, and the males are seek- THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 19 ing their mates. When two of them take a fancy for the same female, they fight for the prize in unrelenting fury. At other seasons the males are inclined to lead solitary lives, in the depths of the forest, far from the presence of man. The bear seldom makes an un- provoked attack on a human being, and when it does so, it is because it has become desperate from the pangs of hunger. Then it is greatly to be dreaded by the benighted traveler who is alone where desperate bears abound, with no companion or faithful dog to share his watch. Bears climb trees and rocks with facile ease, and they swim well, bathing often in Summer. They are also expert diggers. During the time when it is en- gaged in feeding, the bear climlbs constantly up all kinds of elevated spots, searching for food, either vegetable or animal. Leaves of trees, fruit, nuts and nests of ants and wild bees, berries and fruit of vines are favorite articles of diet. In Autumn, bears become exceedingly fat in con^ sequence of ample feasts of fruit, nuts and wild honey which they are able to enjoy, as they roam abroad through the forests and barrens, and make prepara- tions for passing the cold, inhospitable months of Winter in some den, used for a hibernating home. The supply of fat in its body serves the double pur- pose of sustaining the creature in proper condition during its long fast, and of loading the body with carbon for the purpose of producing the state of lethargy in which the anima I ' passes the Winter. 20 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA Honey produces fat and the bear is led by instinct to search for and devour it untiringly. Potter County Legislators, working in the interest of the pot hunt- ers, charge bears with destroying bee-keepers *'scaps,'' but as very few bees are raised in the County, the losses are negligible A curious phenomenon takes place in the digestive organs of the bdar enabling it to remain the entire Winter without losing condition. The stomach be- comes quite empty and, together with the intestines, is contracted into a very small space. No food passes through the system, for 'a mechanical construction styled the "tappen" blocks the passage, remaining in position until Spring. It is composed almost entirely of pine leaves and substances from ants' nests which bears devour avariciously. It is maintained that a hibernating bear, discover- ed and killed in its den, is quite as fat as before it retired to its resting place. At the end of four or five months' sleep, it is claimed that the bear is as fat at the beginning of its sleep ; but this fat is soon oxygen- ized or burned up, when the animal begins to exercise in open air and grow its fresh coat of hair, in Spring. During Winter, bears gain new skin on the balls oS their feet, facilitated, no doubt, by their habit of sucking their paws while hibernating. In its soft, warm bed of moss and leiaves, the bear dreams the Winter days away, and the high cost of living may go hang, in bruin's philosophy. Throughout our east- THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 21 ern States and Eastern Canada, the fur and fat are of commercial Value and the flesh esteemed for food. Bear's oil is a great hair restorer, promoting gloss and vigorous growth. The hard, white fat of the in- terior of the body is the only fat that should be used for the purpose ; but titular ''bear's grease has often been only hog's lard, colored and scented to charm the eyes and nostrils of purchasers, and of doubtful benefit to their hair. Thus do the busy promoters of trade in cosmetics throw dust in the eyes and grease the hair of confiding buyers whom they mulct, delude and disappoint regarding one virtue of Bruin's fat ! From one 'to four cubs are born, in January or early in February, to each mother bear, which are very small during the first few days of existence, six to eight inches long. The mother furnishes ample nour- ishment for their rapid growth, without taking food or apparent diminution of her condition; while hiber- nating, until spring, taking the best of care of her offspring during summer and preparing winter quar- ters for them near her own winter resort. During the winter another little family is born, and when they issue forth from their den in spring, they are often joined by the year-old cubs during the spring, summer and autumn ; so hunters frequently see droves of bears traveling through (the woods, searching for food. The droves frequently follow the same path until a trail is worn and may be seen by observing hunters, who then may find bears along these trails simply by 22 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA watching them in early morning or the afternoon, until night makes the sight of them invisible in the shaded forest or jungle of briars, bushes and ferns. SECTION IV. Recently, men hunt bears in squads and platoons, armed with repeating rifles of long range, with high- powered ammunition, and automatic pistols of large calibre. The Oleona Forest was an illustration of battle in Argonne Woods during -the World War. This noisy and dangerous method frightened careful hunters away from the woods and destroyed the sport and the exultation that a hunter feels when, alone, he has bagged a bear. High-powered ammunition and rifles of long range are deadly in ithe forest, where the range of vision is limited, for the bears and for hunters. Men are wounded or killed and few bears are killed by the noisy crews. Old-time guns of moderate range should be carried by hunters in our hills, in preference to guns of long range that frequently kill a man beyond vision of the man who shoots. The chase of the black bear was exceedingly dangerous to the lone hun>ter, with his inferior gun of fifty years ago. Although naturally a quiet and retiring creature, keeping aloof from mankind, it is truly a ferocious beast when hemmed in by antag- onists. Seated erect, eyeballs darting fury, ears laid back, tongue lolling from its mouth, and every ges- THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 23 ture glowing with, fierce energy, it presents a front to unnerve a novice or anyone but an experienced hunter. With terrible blows it beats off the dogs as though they were rabbits, and, charging them, crushes a dog's skull as though it were an egg shell. Nothing but a rifle ball in a vital spot will then check the ani- mal in its furious rage. Then the old warrior falls on the field of battle, and the hunter feels a splendid thrill. Parker Run flows into Portage Creek, two miles west of Keating Summit. Its source is six miles south, in the township of Norwich, in McKean Coua- ty, Pa. In 1860 the passenger pigeons had a nesting city on the old salt works— Parker Run — and some timber was felled, to get the squabs. Later a thrifty young forest sprang up, and wild grape vines trailed over the young trees, bending down the tops and the branches, under loads of frost grapes, and the damp snows of fall, making a jungle almost impenetrable by man, and an ideal resort for bears that feast on wild grapes. On the north, in township of Roulette, in Potter County, dwelt Edwin R. Grimes and his sons, Walter Rea and Edwin Grimes, Junior, who loved to hunt Bruin through late autumn. Edwin, Senior, saw many swarms of honey bees, deserting their hives, fly toward Parker Run, so they reasoned that bears would congregate in that forest to get the wild honey, and they built a log cabin near the wild grape vines, to be near their prey. On the south were tracts of 24 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA timber owned by the Boody heirs, the Heebner estate and by F. H. and C. W. Goodyear, over thirty thou- sand acres of cover for the wild game. From the hut they and their friends hunted deer and bears for many years. In October of 1877, Sen- eca Pomeroy and J. B. Davison climbed the Shinglo Cabin mountain before daylight, to hunt for a bear. They approached the chestnut grove on the ridge as quietly as was possible, listening to the pop, pop, pop of limbs, lopped off by a bear to get the nuts. These limbs fell to the ground, under the tree, where Bruin could get the nuts at his ease when he descended the tree, and there enjoy his breakfast. As the first rays of the rising sun gilded the tops of the highest trees, the hunters beheld Bruin as he slid down the chestnut tree, and *' Seneca" shot his long rifle, aimed at Bruin's neck. Then the bear charged upon the men, while Davison held his Winchester ready to finish Bruin at close range, and ''Seneca" reloaded his rifle. When Bruin came near he sat up erect, crying and growling. Then "Seneca" stood before him, re- peating the familiar Indian epilogue: "Hark, now, Musquaw ! You are a coward, and no warrior, as you pretend to be. Our tribes have been at war for many years. Yours were the aggresssors and you found us too strong, so you sneak about, stealing sheep and pigs from us, and robbing our cornfieMs that our squaws have planted for our food in winter, while you are sleeping. Perhaps, even now, you have THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 25 corn in your belly, while you cry and whimper like an old squaw." Then he shot the bear again, which turned and rapidly climbed a small tree, where he hung, twenty feet above the hunters, for a while. Then he feli to the ground, quite dead, and the hunters dragged him to the foot of the hill as rapidly as they could, and proceeded to skin and dress the meat, which was fat and delicious. — From Altoona Tribune of January ii, ipi^. On his twelfth birthday anniversary, Edwin Grimes shot and killed a large black bear near Canoe Place, (Port Allegheny, McKean County), where his parents had located ''the Grimes settlement" on the south bank of the Allegheny, while hunting with Jacobs, the Seneca bear hunter, the latter known as "Jim Jacobs," and at each return of the hazy days of No- vember, the Indian Summer, he wished to try for another, to lengthen his list, which had grown from year to year to 198 dead bears, as his eightieth birth- day approached, in 1910. He resolved to try to ''get" two more bears on tha)t day, and went from Roulette to the big Nunundah (Potato Creek) forest for that purpose. Following an old log road, over which great cherry and pine trees had been hauled for lumber, in the township of Norwich, he came to a cleared spot where a lumber camp had been, at (the edge of which he sat upon a log to rest in the bright sunshine of the frosty morning, there b'eing no snow on the 26 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA ground. At the opposite side of the little clearing s'tood a large chestnut tree, and beyond it loomed a dank forest of great hemlock trees, 30,000 acres, the last great tract of hemlock in Pennsylvania. Mr. Grimes had always been a still-hunter, and his four-score years made the most passive form a ne- cessity. So he sat dozing on the log, recalling legends of the past: that Jim Jacobs had said his grand- mother (generic name of ancestral female line) was an educated girl of the Eriez, his grandfather a white man ; both were Senecas by adoption ; that Mary Gleason, his wife, was* half-white; they had Hved on the East Branch of Fishing Creek until Aaron Rob- bins sdttled there; then at the head of Webster Hol- low ; later by the river, north of the source of Free- man's Run; that Jacob was dead since 1886, and his two sons and a daughter only remained of his family. With eyes wide open the dream passed through his reminiscent faculties. Would the two bears he de- sired never come? He dozed again, ears alert. That mossy stump of an old-growth pine yonder shows how deep snow caused the chopper to cut high above the ground; that white pine stood there when Colum- bus unrolled the map of a western world which the eastern hemisphere had hardly dreamed of; the red populations he had known in a lifetime spent near the forest ; the red pilots and raftsmen on the rivers ; the red hunters he had known; the wolves he had killed; the deer— 800 of them— that he had killed; THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 27 the 200 bears, lacking only two; would they come to him ? Not likely. That snapping stick ! Alert now, he mused, what could have caused a stidk to break? There it is again! How his blood tingled at the thought that it "may be a bear !" With shaking hand, he rubbed his dim eyes 'and stood erect. The thicket of weeds beyond the clearing waved a little, he thought ; could it have been only the breeze ? All his senses were centered upon that thicket, as he stood m.otionless, nerves tingling and the blood rushed in veins, pounded in his ear drums. The distance was hardly two hundred yards. The nervous tension was great, his legs shook and tremors passed along his spine, "Buck-fever" almost caused tears in his fast-winkling eyes, but there he stood, as motionless as the old pine stump; the slightest move- ment might be fatal to his earnest desire! Again the weeds move, ever so slightly, but his vision clears and his frame stiffens; he stands as rigidly as a pointer dog; he seems to scent the animal; nerves are now quiet and patience rules the ancient hunter; he cocks his Winchester and fixes his eyes upon the thicket; a form emerges from the weeds; still he waits and another form, a smaller one, appears ! A large she-bear and her six-months-old cub ap- proached the chestnut 'tree ; they pick up the fallen nuts from the ground ; the cub plays about its mother ; she pushes it aside and then rolls it in the leaves, the old hunter raises his gun, his eye traces the gun- sights, in line with the base of her ear, his finger 28 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA presses the trigger and the mother-bear slowly sinks beside her astonished cub; he pumps the reloading lever, sights at the cub's head and lagain his finger presses the trigger. Noise of the two reports rings out a paeon of victory. There is a change of scene. Edwin Grimes con- templates the two prone forms, the fulfillment of his dearest wish, the accomplishment of his fondest dream, his heart's desire, that equalled a prayer in its achieve- ment, made his score complete. He had killed two hundred bdars, strict account and full measure! Patience, steadiness of eye and hand, 'and alertness of mind had won the task he had set for himself. The last prizes were his upon his eightieth birthday anniversary. The bears were removed, by Edwin Grimes, Junior, to their Card Creek home in the township of Roulette, County of Potter, in Penn- sylvania, where a snap-shot photograph shows the two bears, the two men; and the farm dog is on guard. In politics, Edwin Grimes is a Democrat, and as emphatic as was Andrew Jackson, when he expresses an opinion, confirming it by a "By Dan!" On his farm he works like a Trojan to help his great con- frere, Woodrow Wilson, *'lick the dang Germans!" He m'akes maple syrup, gathers his choice winter apples, tends his large garden and makes hay, each Summer, for his horses and cattle. Two girls, his granddaughters, keep his house and make him com- fortable. THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 29 In his younger days, Mr. Grimes was an expert Greco-Roman wrestler, as miany a conceited raftsman and lumberjack have learned, when Edwin, accepted a challenge and standing up, face to face, with collar and elbow in each others grasp, quickly sent his an- tagonist's heels flying high, and shoulders to the ground, five points touching the soil on the instant of relaxation of muscles, caused by the jar of so force- ful concussion a's the landing shock. "Beau" Gould, the Hinsdale wrestler, has said: "Edwin Grimes was the only man that I never succeeded in laying upon his back, at least, soni'etimes, in a wrestling bout." As a rafting pilot on the Adlegheny he had no superior, either redman or white, and the services of Edwin Grimes were always in demand for the fast- running rafts of "pig-iron," (Green hemlock logs of lum^ber, cut in Winter and milled with bark on), which being heavier than pine, slid down the water decline more rapidly ; and were more likely to turn edgewise when they struck a rock or an island, mak- ing total wreckage. When rafting on the Allegheny declined, Edwin Grimes peeled much hemlock, as contractor for tan- ners and lumbermen, among whom he was accounted trustworthy, reliable and energetic, a worthy and hon- orable citizen, an honest man. Leroy Lyman was a Republican, and they were rival hunters of bear and deer, so much good-fellowship existed between them, and sometimes bordering upon truculence. Mr. Ly- 30 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA man took a deer that Mr. Grimes ha'd killed, claim- ing it as his; but Grimes protested to no avail. But later, Mr. Lyman left at the post office, for Mr. Grimes, ten dollars, reason;aible value of a deer, at that time. At another time, Mr. ' Grimes killed and began dressing a! deer, when along came Mr. Lyman, claim- ing the deer, which he seized by the horns, dragged it down the hill in the snow saying it was his deer and he would take it home. Mr. Grimes then ran after him, leaped upon his back and both rolled in the snow a while, without striking each* other. Then Mr. Lyman went home, without the deer. Early in January, 1919, as Edwin R. Grimes en- tered his home, he fell across the threshold and died instantly, at a ripe old age, without a struggle. o w >^ iz; fa H S A Few Sidelights On Bears "To dream a bear thy self pursues, A cruel foe some mischief brews." —Old Rime. In "Extinct Pennsylvania Animals." Parts I. and II. by the writer of these lines are recorded the un- happy stories of the extermination of a dozen of the larger forms of mammals which once inhabited the Keystone State. They were unnecessarily wiped out of existencex to satisfy man's misguided zeal and rapacity, and for political reasons, to keep the moun- taineer vote in line by the payment of "bounties." Through some miracle of good fortune, the Black Bear has been spared so that we of the present gen^ eration can enjoy the presence of this unique game animal in our forests. The deer are also with us, but it is a question as to whether they remain in their native form, or are merely introduced animals from the West and South, and their descendants. The Black Bear was never "introduced" by Game Department Officials, in fact, was never given a fair chance until a few years ago, when he was on tlie verge of extermination, trapping and other unfair means of destroying him were forbidden by law. But his enemies will never rest, they want a longer season, they want the privilege of taking him in pens, in addi- tion to the privileges gained in the law which was 31 32 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA jammed through the Legislature of 1919. If a protec- tive measure ior any animal or bird could go through one quarter as fast, we would have all the game needed in Pennsylvania. The 1919 la\v was passed in order to nullify improved dog-law in Potter County., and save the scalps of a legion of worthless underfed canines. At that time, and at other times, unlicensed -dogs were ravaging Potter County sheepfolds, and it was either annihilate the sheep killing mongrels or blame the "slaughter of the innocents" on something else — the bears of course, as the wolves had already vanished up the dark road, for the same unholy reason. The bears were officially ''blamed," a wise law was abro- gated, and the irresponsible owners of many a mangy cur were exultant. They will do all against the bears during the present session they can. When the unjust charges were brought against the bears in 1918 and 1919, the writer was in the Army, but from a distance endeavored to investigate through corre- spondence every alleged case of bears killing sheep. In each community the honest unbiased citizens wrote him the facts — he has the letters on file— -showing that in no published case were bears the culprits, and in some instances the sheep had been killed and carried off over high fences by human marauders. Copies of these letters were sent to Dr. Kalbfus, who re- plied stating that in order to save any protection for the bears, he would prefer not to enter the fight in their behalf, that half a law was better than none, etc. It was also strange that no account of these ''depreda- H "^ O U ;?; H a Q o THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 33 tions" were published in the Potter and McKean County newspapers, which tJhe writer received reg- ularly as a subscriber ! It seems a ipity that an animal so pioturesque in appearance, so grotesque in its habits, and as great 'a source of sport should have so many enemies, some of our mountain people are still in a tribal state, and the old desire 'to kill off everything still lurks in tlheir breasts. Hon. Henry Meyer, of Rebersburg, Centre County, born in 1840, says that once he was out trout fishing in the early Spring on a small stream on the Winter side of Brush Valley, when he noted that the water was all "roiled." Pretty soon he encountered a giant Black Bear that was making an unsuccessful effort to catch fish with its front paws. Mr. Meyer is of the opinion that bears can never catch anything more than crayfish in the streams. The bear deserves all the protection he can get, in Pennsylvania', in the South, in the West, to furnish sport for young manhood, amusement for childhood, and reflection for old age — he is an ally of all that is quaint and curious in the life of the forest. Bear hunting is a noble pastime if pursued according to sporting rules, and all are invigorated and strengthen- ed by pitting human skill against such a sagacious monster. Economically, the bear is of value for his flesh, his hide, and his grease, he is an insect destroyer of immense value to the forests, consuming myriads of ants, which are becoming so destructive to our > oung pine trees. Historically, he is linked with Indian days. 34 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA and the lives of our pioneers, and with the immense amount of folk-lore that has clustered about him, Candlemias Day, the day of the bears, has now be- come ground hog day in the greater part of Pennsyl- vania, due to Bruin's own transferance of the perqui- site of sensing the weather to his marmot friend^ — see the story as related by old Mr. Middleswarth in the writer's "Juniata Memories," (1916). To students of Zoology bears are always interesting, especially in Pennsylvania, where the two more or less mythical species, ''the 'hog hear" and ''the dog bear" will always give rise to discussion, like the Indian legend of "the naked bear," a ferocious kind of ''Musquaw," destroyed at an early day. The color phases ranging from pure white to piebald, black and brown, and fulvous red, cause much speculation as to varying types or sub-species. Miss Brackman, in her history of "Susquehanna County," tells of a white bear killed in that County in 1802, and another white bear was taken in an animal drive in what is now Snyder Coun^"'^ at a still* earlier period. Leroy Lyman, noted Potter County hunter, killed several black bears, with dis- tinct tinges of brown or red, on breasts, shoulders and bellies. These skins were on exhibition at his late home near Roulette, being admired by many persons. ' S. N. Rhoads in his "Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," mentioned several "red" bears killed in Lycoming and Sullivan Counties, one as late as 1882. The last red bear and perhaps the finest one of all FRANK DAPP AND FAMILY FAMOUS BEAR HUNTER THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 35 time, was shot by Edgar Austin Schwenk, of East-- ville, Clinton County, on the old Buffalo Path, Union County, November 29, 1912. The animal which weighed dressed 250 pounds, was in its prime coat and in color resembled a fine Canadian Red Fox. The various shades of lemon, tan and fulvous, shining lik^ burnished gold in the sunlight, make it a trophy well worth possessing. It is now in the collection of the writer of this article. Nnmrod Schwenk, when inter- viewed in the Spring of 1915, stated that he believed that there was another bear of the same coloring in the White Deer Creek forests, as .he had come upon its bed several times, finding hairs which the monster had rubbed off in his slumbers. The White Deer Creek region was a famous County for bear hunting. Reuben McCormick, born in 1828, says that the hillsides were lined with stone bear pits, resembling coke ovens, where the brutes by stepping on a re- volving door on the top of 'these tumuli, on the under side of which a piece of meat was fastened, would be dropped into the barrows helpless captives. The range of the bears in Pennsylvania is gradually becom- ing more circumscribed. In colonial times, they came as near to Philadelphia as Germantown, as told in Watson's *'Annals," now they are gone from the Blue mountains along the Western and Northern bound- aries of Berks and Lehigh Counties, although they were noticed there not infrequently until after the Civil war. C. H. McNeely, a retired *Tennsy" rail- roader, born in 1838, says that during the Civil war. 36 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA a hunter from Dauphin, met a she-bear with two cubs on the Second Mountain, killing the old bear and bring- ing the cubs in triumph to town. The Second Moun- tain is considerably less than ten miles from Harris- burg. So early as the seventies they were rare in about the mouth of the Juniata, as per the following quotation from Silas Wright's excellent ''History of Perry County." "In 1871, an old bear and cub crossed through Pfoutz's Valley, over the Forge Ridge into Wildcat Valley, where some hunters frightened them to return, which they did, and were killed in Juniata County. They had been driven from Shade M'ountain by the fires which were burning over them at that season of the year.'' They have long since disappeared from the vicinity of Pittsburg, and about Erie; they are gone from the South Mountains and the Poconos. Migratory though They are, they are also timorous, and will not venture into regions where they are per- sistently molested. Flavins J. David, veteran sur- veyor of Lock Haven, who died in 1920. said that once, about 1898. he was surveying on a mountain in Union County, when he suddenly came upon four bears. He shouted at them and waved his hat, and they started down the mountains at a furious rate, overturning flat stones, and logs, in their haste to reach a place of safety. Bears have been hunted many ways in Pennsylvania, traps, (the writer has a collection of steel bear traps, including one used by Seth I. Nel- son, the premier Clinton County bear hunter, who died THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 37 in 1905), log-pens, bear pits, dead falls, dogs, dug out from the Winter quarters, and poisoning. A list of the great bear hunters of Pennsylvania would sound like a German casualty list, pages and pages long. Among \ hose whose names will live in song and story are: Bill Long, of Clearfield County; Jim Jacobs, *'The Seneca Bea'r Hunter" ; Edwin Grimes, (frontispiece, with the last two of his double cen- tury of bears, as described by Mr. French) : Samuel Askey, Center County; ''Old Man" Bennett, Lycom- ing County; Jake Drumheller, Northumberland County; C. W. Dickinson, McKean County; Seth I. Ndson, and Seth Nelson, Jr., Chnton County* David A. Zimmerman arid "J^^" Zimmerman, Union County; Aaron Embigh, Clinton County; "Jake" Karstetter, Chnton County; Frank Dapp, Lycoming County; ''Abe" Simcox, Clinton County, and among the younger generation, Chauncey E. Logue, now State Game Inspector, of Cameron County, who in this prosaic day and generation, has nearly Mty bears to his credit, and he is less than fifty years old. How- ever the purpose of these pages a're not to dwell on the slayers of bears, except those who hunted accord- ing to sporting ethics, but to give the case of the bears, and to try and save them from going the way of the moose, the elk and the bison in Pennsylvania. No animal should be condemned except on the same carefully weighed evidence which has been accorded certain so-called noxious birds, by a series of stomach examinations. 38 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA In the old days, Dr. B, H. Warren examined tens of thousands of bird stomiachs, and in pubHshed re- sults gave the correct economic status of every bird known in Pennsylvania'. The U. S. Biological Survey performed a similar work at Washington, D. C. However, when the ranchers and rustlers, in order to alibi their half -wild dogs decreed death on the coyote, the wolf, the mountain lion and the prairie dog, no such thing was done, and these animals are being done to death without their economic status having been determined. Yet the law creating the U. S. Biological Survey, which has now become an appanage of the cattlemen provides "careful examinations to de- termine the economic status of each of the species of the faunal life of the United States." If as at the present time a deteniiined onslaught is made against the Black Bear in Pennsylvania, sports- men and naturalists should demand a series of stomach examinations, taken simultaneously, of b^ars and un- tagged dogs, secured in same territory. The location of the mutton will be in the gorged stomachs of the half-wild dogs. The writer is interested in dogs, has owned and bred them for many years, blue blooded dogs, true blooded dogs,' Airedales, Russian Wolf- hounds, Dalmatiaans and German Police Dogs (with wolf admixture) at various times, has every respect foir a good dog, admires him for his sagacity and fidehty, but the outlaw dog, whose owner never feeds him, and leaves him loose at nights to forage, is an THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 39 unfortunate outlaw that has no place in the whole gamut of protection. Probably the increased prestige and respect in which t?he State Game Commission of Pennsylvania is being regarded on all sides, will do much to lessen the malignity of the *'gaine hogs" who seek to annihiliate all living things. We hear less of the stupid view- point once voiced to the writer by a wealthy lumber- man's son in the Northwestern part of the State. ''What good are bears?" What good is anything? Everything that God made is good and is here for some wise end. The bear, as started previously, has an economic value, whereas some forms of life thus far have only demonstrated a sentimental value. And a sentimental or aesthetic value is a mighty one, for the things that belong to art, and wonderment and beauty are what make us cast our eyes upward, and separate us from the crawling worm that reasons not on the glory of this surrounding universe. A world without trees, and flowers, and birds and animals, would be bare indeed, and unfortunately we were fast coming to it until such names as Sproul, Pinchot, McFarland, Shearer, Van Valkenburg, Herbert Walker, French, Chathami, Walter Darlington, Rothrock, Witraer Stone, Rhoads, Dr. Warren, Jonathan Mould, Enos Jones and* Dr. Kalbf us, like a solid phalanx, bid the. despoiler halt in the name of Conservation. May their numbers never grow less, their souls increase, and may their saving force be permanent for the glory of Pennsylvania Beautiful. 40 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA The great work of conservation for the future branches off in four leading directions : First, Reforestation ; second, Preservation of Wild Bird and Ainjimal Life; third. Purification of Our Streams; fourth, Protec- tion of Mountain Scenery from Quarrymen. These are the Big Four of Natural Conservation, and not an inch should be yielded to the interests who for the glittering dollar would re-establish chaos in this world. The other day the writer had the opportunity of clasp- ing the hand of that stalwart young devotee of con- servation, former Senator Enos M. Jones, of Altoona, and reminding him what an inspiration he was in the work of protecting the wild life, and above all the natural scenery of our beloved Commonwealth. Never were finer words penned than those of Senator Jones, when he protested to Governor Brumbaugh against the demolition of the grand rock scenery on the face of Jack's Mountain. "It is all w'rong for the rich Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania for a few dollars of passing gain to destroy a mountain that is O'f matchless beauty and pleasure to millions of persons." That is the creed of conserva- tion, the greatest good for the greatest numiber, green forested mountains, pure streams, fish, birds, game, black bears, all are a part of the heritage from our fathers, to go on in an unending sequence to our chil- dren and our children's children, and not to be scuttled and gutted to furnish graft, ill-gotten gain or special privilege for the few of any one particular generation. THE BLACK BEAR OP PENNSYLVANIA 41 Give the bears a chance to go their way, hunt them in a proper season if it gives you sport so to do, but be a nian, be a sportsman, a gentleman and don't let the destroyer and the despoiler sit on your neck. Penn- sylvania and its glories are for us all. The learned Missionary John Heckewelder, in' his dissertation on "Indian Nations'', reveals the kindly, half whimsical attitude which the Indians felt towards the wild denizens of the forests, and towards bears in particular; would they could be emulated by some of our Potter County mountaineers who would exterm- inate Ursus Americanus. He says : "A Lenni-Lenape hunter once shot a large bear and broke its backbone. The animal fell and set up a most plaintive cry something like that of the panther when he is hungry. The hunter, instead of giving him another shot, stood up close to him, and addressed him these words : 'Hark ye ! bear, you are a coward, and no warrior as you pretend to be. Were you a war- hior, you would show it by your firmness and not cry and whimper like an old woman. You know, bear, that our tribes are at war with each other, and that yours was the aggressor. You have found the Indians too powerful for you, and you have gO'Ue sneaking about in the woods. Had you conquered me, I would have borne it with courage, and died like a brave war- rior, but you, bear, sit and cry and disgrace your tribe by your cowardly conduct.' " Heckewelder asked the nimrod how he thought the poor animal could under- stand what he said to it. "Oh !" said he in answer, 42 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA "the bear understood me very well; did you not ob- serve how ashamed he looked while I was upbraiding him?" At another time the famous Missionary wit- nessed a similar scene near the falls of the Ohio. A young white boy named Willie Wells, the same whom Volney, the French traveler speaks of, who had been when a lad, taken prisoner by a tribe of the Wabash Indians, and brought up by them, and had imbibed all their notions, had so wounded a large bear that he could not move from the spot, and the animal cried piteously. The young man went up to the bear, and with seeming great earnestness, addressed him in the Wabas^h language, now and then giving him a slight stroke on the nose with his ram-rod. Heckewelder asked him when he was done, what he had been say- ing to the dying bear. "I have" he said, "upbraided him for acting the part of a coward ; told him that he knew the fortune of war, that one or the other of us must have fallen ; that it was his fate to be conquered, and he ought to die like a man, like a. hero, and not like an old woman; that if the case had been reversed, I would not have disgraced my nation a's he did, but would have died with firmness and courage, as be- comes a true warrior." There is grave danger in Pennsylvania that we may disgrace ourselves in our handling of the fate of the bear tribe ! Even while bears were frequently met with in all parts of our mountains, trainers with trick bears were visitors in the more remote backwoods communi- ties. A. D. Karstetter, Postmaster of Loganton, Clin- THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 43 ton County, tells of both black and cinnamon bears brought there annually by travelling mountebacks, and how the children were excited when the bears were put in box stalls at the old Washington Inn stables for the night. In Juniata County, near McAUisterville, where the young scions of the Ulster Scots carried out a tra- dition of their forefathers by holding shooting matches, like the festival of the Popinjay, described by Sir Walter Scott, a whole raft of these blue-blooded youths who were competing for a prize, with the old Indian marksman Shawnee John, late of Caiptain Parr's Com- pany of riflemeij as referee, were thrown into panic by the sudden appearance in their midst of a five-hundred' pound red bear, from Shade Mountain. They were so flustered, that they allowed Bruin to get away in the excitement. Unique in the annals of bear hunting was old Leonard Faler, (originally Faillaires, of Huguenot descent), of Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County, a not- ed Nimrod of the Blue Mountains, who always tracked bears to their caves and went in after them, killing them with his bear-knife in hand-to-hand conflicts. It is related that he refused to speak to one of his sons for a long time because he shot a bear, and in the open. Inoffensive as they generally are, bears will fight when their rights are infringed. John S. Hoar, of Milroy (Mifflin County) tells how his grand- father, William Johnson, an early hunter at the Kettle, in Mifflin County, once came upon a panther and a bear fighting as to which should cross a certain log over Laurel Run, in Detweiler Hollow. They fought 44 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA until both were literally torn to pieces; and Charles L. Fleming tells of an almost similar bear-panther combat near Rock Run, Centre County. There are few more observing naturalists than Mr. Fleming, anr] he has made a life-long study of the habits of Penn sylvania bears. He can point out the way they mark trees with their claws, and break off sapHngs in their migrations to show to their kind the direction in which they are traveling. The bear wallows on Rock Run are very popular wi'th the ursine tribe, and Fleming's descriptions of mother bears teaching their cubs to enjoy mud baths is droll and of unusual interest. "Jake" Zimmerman is, of course, another authoriiv on bear wallows, and on the wandering habits ot bears in general. He is fond of pointing out "The Haystack," a high mountain on White Deer Crt^ek, where Martin Blue, a fifteen-year-old boy from Orangeville, Columbia County, shot three bears in 1870, and slid them down the side of 'the hill on the snow. Bear hides have rapidly enhanced in value of late years. In 1914 the writer was shown a superbly furred black hide, killed by Miles Hall, of near Unionville, Centre County, son of the famous hunter, Aaron Hall, which was priced at $15.00. Fifty dollars is now paid for a good bear rug, mounted with the head, although a few years ago Charles H. Eldon, Qf Williamsport, sold finely mounted rugs at $35.00. Unmounted bear skins, in prime fur, will probably fetch $25.00 at the present time. Bear grease is in great demand among ^^ itel^««EJ»pHiM f ;.■ " mi ^Pi^v:.; K :'>€ ,«Lt^^ r j^fcj«^-^^3l »^r-»<. E-:„ : ^^r r'^^^^ms^: ^r^;l^»i^ ;:* V > W PP '^! • i^f W 1 B'^ I ,, ^*f • ^''- IHSh *;< « :■• -^ -..•1. • «, r'' H iz; o ;z; o H ;z; u g P3 O 1-9 o ;z; o THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 45 the mountain people, being used for rheumatism, sore throats, backache and other ailments. It is also prized as a finishing dressing for harness. Bear paws are still conspicuous ornaments on many backwoods barns and sheds in our mountain Counties. For years Aaron Hall, who was also a noted hunter of panthers, wolves and deer, maintained a stone hunting lodge on Rock Run, where he would invite a select coterie every season to hunt with him. Those who shared the great Nimrod's hospitaHty had to be up to a certain standard of hardiness, and when it was intimated that Hon. Coleman K. Sober, then a young business man of Lewisburg, would like to join his party, word was sent that if he could stand the pace, he was welcome. The initiation the first day consisted of a twenty- three mile tramp on snowshoes after a famous old bear named Lame Legs, which was finally run down and shot at his lair on the third day of the hunt, after he had "circled" his pursuers many times and traveled about sixty miles. At that time Aaron Hall had the skins of eleven full grown panthers at his camp, and several unusually large bear hides. William J. Emert, the well-known automobile repairer at Youngdale, Clinton County, tells how in his younger days, about 1885, he disturbed a "she-bear with cubs out McElhat- tan Gap. The watchful mother, thinkincr that he meant harm to her young, made after him, and **Bill," being unarmed', sprinted down the Gap, being closely pursued by the snorting *'Musquaw" for a dis'tance of 46 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA over two miles. Chauncey E. Logue, now a state game protector, captured a black bear in Otzinachson Park, Clinton County, before the law forbidding trap- ping these animals went into effect in 1915, and fas- tened it to its pen by a stout collar and chain. During the night the bear snapped the chain, worked its way under the heavy wire fence of the park, and deparit :}c * -tc :;: "^Xew" Fosnot's Memories The late Lew C. Fosnot, the brilliant Editor of the "Record and Star" of Watsontown, Northumberland County, makes the following comment on the Zimmer- man family of bear hunters, whose hospice, on the top of South, or White Deer Mountain, at the head- waters of Zimmerman's Run, was for years a favorite resort for the veteran journalist and sportsman and his friends : "No, I am not yet through with tlie Zimmerman family of East Sugar Valley. The prowess of 'Uncle Dave' Zimmerman as a hunter of bears and his social and hospitable qualifications have been outlined, but I am not going to forget his good wife and willing helpmeet 'Mammy' Zimmerman, as she was familiar- ly called. She was a typical pioneer housewife, and faithfully, imcomplainingly shared with her husband all the hardships, discomforts and laborous duties iur cident to making and maintaining a home in the back- woods. The raising of a large family of stalwart, hearty, industrious children, who have proven an honor to their parents and become highly respected citizens of the State and community, is not the least credit due to this remarkable lady." "JIM" JACOBS, •THE SENECA BEAR HUNTER' THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 77 "Quiet and unassuming, 'Mammy' Zimmerman was wonderfully adept in housekeeping duties, a most excellent cook and with a knack of preparing a meal in record-breaking time and maintaining her genial good nature under the most trying circumstances. A dozen or more hungry hunters would crowd into the Zimmerman home without notice at any time, to in- variably find a cordial welcome and a good, Substantial supper ready for them within an hour. That the same conditions prevail at the Zimmerman home to- day is no doubt largely due to the example set by this good old lady, who will be ever held in kindly remembrance by all who have partaken of her un- alloyed hospitality. *'By the way, the recent blizzard and snow storms will not make the Zimmerman home a very desirable place of residence for the unacclimated citizen. With a foot of snow on the ground previous to the fall of the 14th inst., which would add nearly two feet more, the situation loOks decidedly unpleasant. But with an amply stocked cellar and larder and full barns, which is the rule of the genial 'Jake' to maintain at all times, outside of the fact that he may be deprived of his favorite North American daily paper and other communication with the outside world for a few days, he and his estimable family will not want for the necessaries of life, and can laugh at the ground-hog- gish weather." 78 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA Big Bear Killed by Hunters Near Olean In Jim Jacobs' Old Hunting Country Animal Gives Dog Vicious Fight Before Bullets Ends Its Life Olean, (N. Y.) Feb. 8. — A big black bear was killed in the section southwest of this city yesterday. The animal's "tracks were seen Candlemas Day by Chris and William Gabler, who were fox hunting. Bruin escaped that day, as the hunters carried only light shells for the small animails. They returned to trail the bear yesterday, killing it after a three hours' chase. The Gablers started out early yesterday morning. They were accompanied by two well-trained hunting dogs, and finding tracks along the old bear trail, they followed them to Rice Brook, near Irving Mills, back of Big Red House. The section is one of the wildest and most desolate pieces of country in 'this part of the state. It is in the territory that is considered for the proposed state park. The dogs were far ahead of the men, and they at- tacked the bear when they caught up with the wild animal. Snarling viciously, the animal returned the attack, and a lively scrimmage in the snow, that lasted for some minutes, followed. The dogs were bowled back repeatedly by the bear's big paws but they were pushing bruin hard when the men reached the place. The hungers poked their guns into the struggling THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 79 mass, and after five discharges the bear was dead. It weighed 175 pounds. Olean residents will have an opportunity to obtain bear meat tomorrow. The animal is hanging from hooks in the Adolph Ahrens meat market, at 801 West State Street, and it will be cut up and sold, it was said. The skin is fine, soft and silky, and one of the most valuable ever taken around here. — (ip^i.) sK :is H« * * More from Jake Zimmerman Under date of February 9, 1921, "J^^e" Zimmer- man sends four more bear stories and other valuable information, as follows : Bear Story No. 1 About September, 1862, David Zimmerman, the noted hunter, had taken some sheep to raise on the shares from a man by name of 'Squire John Price, and one night, while he (Mr. Zimmerman) was sound asleep a bear came into his yard and took one of his nice sheep and dragged it out the road and up along the fence into the brush and covered it up with leaves and sticks. Mr. Zimimerman often heard that a bear would come back for the balance of his kill about 4 o'clock P. M., but David had borrowed a clover seed cradle for that day only and he thought the bear would' not come till after dark on account of him cut- ting clover seed just inside of the field from where the bear had 'to come for !his meat. W'hen Mr. Zim- 80 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA merman mowed up to the fence he took a stone and went to fasten his scythe on the cradle, and then he heard the bear run away from the sheep carcass. Then he put the dog on the bear but that was all there was to it — ^one sheep less. Mr. Zimmerman kept the rest of the sheep until the following summer, when the bears ate up all the nice young lambs, as well as some of the older ones. Mr. Zimmerman loaded the rest of the sheep into the ox wagon, and his son, Jake, took them out to 'Squire Price. Mr. Zimmerman never tried to raise sheep from that time on, which goes to show that bears are fond of sheep meat. Bear Story No. 2 About the year 1871 a High German by 'the name of Henry Walters lived at the old Binger place, two and a half miles west of the Fourth Gap, now on the Bald Eagle State Forest. This man, Mr. Walters, had gone afoot down to Elimsport and on his way home it got dark on him aibout at the old Hoffey mill but the moon was shining and when Mr. Walters got up to about the Hogback road, now known as Hunter's Spring, he saw what he supposed to be a big colored man. He afterwards told Mr. Zimmerman that he had seen a big Negro standing alongside of the road and the man never said a word, and Zimmerman told THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 81 him that it was no colored man, but a huge bear. Then Wakers said if 'he had known that he would have killed himself running. (Bears walking about erect in the woods may be the origin of some of the gorilla stories prevalent in Central Pennsylvania, 1920-1921.— H. W. S.) Bear Story No. 3 As late as 1912 or 1913 Dr. A. T. Dewitt, a fine old gentleman, whose greatest delight was *to be in the woods looking for bears, foxes, skunks,etc., spent the greater part of his time in trapping at Zimmerman's farm with his friend', Jake Zimmerman, but he never caught a bear ajt Jake's, and took up his trapping for bears in Columbia County at or near Elk Grove, where he built a bear pen. One day he went up to the pen and crawled in himself to arrange something at the back, and in some way the trap sprung and penned the old doctor in and when night came the people he was stopping with went to look after the old trapper and found him caught in his own bear pen. When tihey came up to the pen with a lantern the old doctor said, *' What are you fellows after?" and they said they were look- ing for him. Then he said': "Oh, I am alright," and so he was alright— a, prisoner in his own bear pen. But he got his "heart's desire" afterwards by catch- ing a nice 150-pound bear in his trap or pen, and it 82 THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA is said nearly his last request before he died was to see this bear skin, which he had made into a rug. Bear Story No. 4 In November, 1915, the following party of hunters were stopping at the Zimmerman farm, their names being : Russell C. Smith, Charles Harris and John Street, of Philadelphia; Claud M. Hower, Lost Creek, Schuylkill County ; Walter Berkelbach, Shaft, Schuyl- kill County; A. H. Feterolf, Mt. Carmel ; M. F. Wolf, Hernd'on; I. S. Wolf, Sunbury; William Christian, W. T. Speicer, Ed. Rudy and F. B. Evans, of Danville, and several others. While out looking for deer signs in a fresh track- ing snow, they came across some new bear tracks which excited the whole party, and all Ihands got ready to have a real old-fashioned bear hunt, making out how they would attack the bear. As the track was only a small cub track, the suspicion of some of the party was aroused and upon clo^e examination it was found the bear 'tracks were made by Jake Zimmerman's daughter Hilda, then eleven years old. So after some great laughing and guying one another the bear lliunt was abandoned, the party not forgetting the joke played en them by Hilda to this day — 1921. Russell C. Smith visited the Zimmerman farm just a short time ago, where he recognized the girl and had a good laugh over it. THE BLACK BEAR OF PENNSYLVANIA 83 Bears' Grease, etc. , Bear hides sold as high as $40.00 for a large one, twenty-five to forty years ago. The price at the pres- ent time is from $10.00 to $30.00, according to size. The bear's grease or bear's oil is good for many uses, one for limbering up stiff joints and rheumatism. The Indians used lots of it for rheumatism. It has been said that if a person uses too much bear's oil on his joints it limbers tlhe joints so much that a person can't stop walking. Indians used the fat of bears to anoint and darken