Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/192

168 HISTORY OF bite them in pieces, and escape at last without our being able to get a ball in him. Amongst our dogs was a favorite old one, we called "Drive/^ and without exception, the best dog to hunt, I ever saw, and withal. the most courageous. He had been our companion in toil and pleasure for several years, and his encounters with wild animals were so numerous, that often has been the time we have carried him from the field of battle helpless and mangled, for miles to our houses ; but always, on recovering, he was anxious to engage in deadly strife with any monster of the forest. This old dog', in the present battle, had seized the bear by the back of the neck with so firm a hold as to disable him, in some measure, from injuring the other dogs. The bear, however, endeavored to rid himself of Drive'^ in every possible way, but to no efi"ect; thinking now it would be a good opportunity to dispatch him, I resolved to try the virtue of my hunting-knife, and approached him with a view of stabbing him ; but the bear immediately broke away from the dogs, and then threw himself on his back again, and when in this position I set my rifle against a tree, and attempted to make the fatal stroke. The bear anticipated my intention, and met my blow with a stroke of his paw, with so much force as to knock the knife from my hand to the distance of thirty feet, and then arose and made a bold push at me, but I showed him a light pair of heels, and being again seized by the dogs, he was deterred from any farther pursuit. We then thought of other means, and commenced cutting large clubs ; but whilst engaged at this, the bear, disrelishing his new enemies, cleared himself of the dogs, which were so disabled by this time that they could scarcely fight any more, and made ofi" at full speed: I seized my rifle, and just as he was springing over an old hemlock log I fired at him, and being afraid of shooting the dogs, I shot too high, and only cut him across the rump, as he pitched over the log. This put him to a stand, and he ascended a tree, to the height of