. Hunting and fishing in Florida, including a key to the water birds known to occur in the state . r than my head in places. I pushed my wayup to where the dogs were holding their concert ; a short recitativeby the leading hound being invariably followed by a full chorus, adog called Blue carrying the high tenor part in fine style. When-ever there was a lull in the performance I could hear the bear pant-ing heavily not more than fifteen or twenty feet from me, butperfectly concealed by the thick scrub. Occasionally his bearship 54 HUNTING AND FISHING IN FLORIDA. made a short rush at the neares
. Hunting and fishing in Florida, including a key to the water birds known to occur in the state . r than my head in places. I pushed my wayup to where the dogs were holding their concert ; a short recitativeby the leading hound being invariably followed by a full chorus, adog called Blue carrying the high tenor part in fine style. When-ever there was a lull in the performance I could hear the bear pant-ing heavily not more than fifteen or twenty feet from me, butperfectly concealed by the thick scrub. Occasionally his bearship 54 HUNTING AND FISHING IN FLORIDA. made a short rush at the nearest dog, uttering a peculiar sort ofrumbling growl or grunt as he did so. During one of these chargesI saw him for an instant not more than twenty feet from me, andshot him through the lungs with a bullet from my 45-70 immediately rose on his hind feet and turned towards me, receiv-ing another ball in the chest as he did so. Over he went, with thewhole lot of dogs on him as he fell. I shot him once again, fearingthat he might still be able to injure the dogs, but it was not ^.^ *5^^ This bear was an old male and very fat. He weighed aboutfive hundred pounds (estimated) and measured six feet two inchesfrom nose to tail (straight line), and eight feet six inches from hindclaw to nose ; around the chest he measured a trifle over fifty-fourinches ; one of his front claws was three and a quarter inches long(measured on the curve) ; altogether, he was a pretty fair Floiidabear. THE BLACK BEAR. 55 Saturday, Dec. i6, 1893: I hunted the large hammockwhere we lost the big bear yesterday. Tom Murray went with me,and Pat and Gale looked after the horses and dogs. Trip found afresh trail of an old she bear and ran south with the other dogs forseveral miles before they finally bayed her in a thick, high could hear her growling and snapping at the dogs; but could notsee her, and the next moment she was off again with the dogs at her
Size: 1671px × 1495px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectfis
