We were out two weeks and in that time killed fifteen bears. Having now supplied my friend with plenty of meat, I engaged occasionally again with my hands in our boat building and getting slaves. But I at length couldn’t stand it any longer without another hunt. So I concluded to take my little son and cross over the lake and take a hunt there. We got over and that evening turned out and killed three bears in little or no time. The next morning we drove up four forks and made a sort of scaffold on which we salted up our meat so as to have it out of the reach of the wolves, for as soon as we would leave our camp, they would take possession. We had just eaten our breakfast when a company of hunters came to our camp, they had fourteen dogs but all so poor that when they would bark they would almost have to lean up against a tree and take a rest. I told them their dogs couldn’t run in smell of a bear and they had better stay at my camp and feed them on the bones I had cut out of my meat. I left them there and cut out but I hadn’t gone far when my dogs took a first-rate start after a very large fat old he-bear, which run right plump towards my camp. I pursued on, but my other hunters had heard my dogs coming and met them and killed the bear before I got up with him. I gave him to them and cut out again for a creek called Big Clover, which wa’n’t very far off. Just as I got there, and was entering a cane brake, my dogs all broke and went ahead and, in a little time, they raised a fuss in the cane and seemed to be going every way. I listened a while and found my dogs in two companies and that both was in a snorting fight. I sent my little son to one and I broke for t’other. I got to mine first and found my dogs had a two-year-old bear down, a-wooling away on him, so I just took out my big butcher and went up and slap’d it into him, killing him without shooting. There was five of the dogs in my company. In a short time, I heard my little son fire at his bear; when I went to him he had killed it too. He had two dogs in his team. Just at this moment we heard my other dog barking a short distance off and all the rest immediately broke to him. We pushed on too, and when we got there, we found he had still a larger bear than either of them we had killed, treed by himself. We killed that one also, which made three we had killed in less than half an hour. We turned in and butchered them and then started to hunt for water and a good place to camp. But we had no sooner started, than our dogs took a start after another one and away they went like a thunder-gust and was out of hearing in a minute. We followed the way they had gone for some time, but at length we gave up the hope of finding them and turned back. As we were going back, I came to where a poor fellow was grubbing and he looked like the very picture of hard times. I asked him what he was doing away there in the woods by himself? He said he was grubbing for a man who intended to settle there and the reason why he did it was that he had no meat for his family and he was working for a little.
I was mighty sorry for the poor fellow, for it was not only a hard, but a very slow way to get meat for a hungry family, so I told him if he would go with me, I would give him more meat than he could get by grubbing in a month. I intended to supply him with meat and also to get him to assist my little boy in packing in and salting up my bears. He had never seen a bear killed in his life. I told him I had six killed then and my dogs were hard after another. He went off to his little cabin, which was a short distance in the brush, and his wife was very anxious he should go with me. So we started and went to where I had left my three bears and made a camp. We then gathered my meat and salted and scaffled it, as I had done with the other. Night now came on but no word from my dogs yet. I afterwards found they had treed the bear about five miles off, near to a man’s house, and had barked at it the whole enduring night. Poor fellows! Many a time they looked for me and wondered why I didn’t come, for they knowed there was no mistake in me and I know’d they were as good as ever fluttered. In the morning, as soon as it was light enough to see, the man took his gun and went to them, and shot the bear and killed it. My dogs, however, wouldn’t have any thing to say to this stranger; so they left him and came early in the morning back to me.
We got our breakfast and cut out again and we killed four large and very fat bears that day. We hunted out the week and in that time we killed seventeen, all of them first-rate. When we closed our hunt, I gave the man over a thousand weight of fine fat bear-meat, which pleased him mightily and made him feel as rich as a Jew. I saw him the next fall and he told me he had plenty of meat to do him the whole year from his week’s hunt. My son and me now went home. This was the week between Christmass and New-year that we made this hunt.
When I got home, one of my neighbours was out of meat and wanted me to go back and let him go with me to take another hunt. I couldn’t refuse but I told him I was afraid the bear had taken to house by that time, for after they get very fat in the fall and early part of the winter, they go into their holes in large hollow trees or into hollow logs, or their cane-houses, or the harricanes, and lie there till spring like frozen snakes. And one thing about this will seem mighty strange to many people. From about the first of January to about the last of April, these varments lie in their holes altogether. In all that time they have no food to eat and yet when they come out, they are not an ounce lighter than when they went to house. I don’t know the cause of this, and still I know it is a fact, and I leave it for others who have more learning than myself to account for it. They have not a particle of food with them, but they just lie and suck the bottom of their paw all the time. I have killed many of them in their trees, which enables me to speak positively on this subject. However, my neighbour, whose name was McDaniel, and my little son and me, went on down to the lake to my second camp, where I had killed my seventeen bears the week before, and turned out to hunting. But we hunted hard all day without getting a single start. We had carried but little provisions with us, and the next morning was entirely out of meat I sent my son about three miles off to the house of an old friend to get some. The old gentleman was much pleased to hear I was hunting in those parts, for the year before the bears had killed a great many of his hogs. He was that day killing his bacon hogs, and so he gave my son some meat and sent word to me that I must come in to his house that evening, that he would have plenty of feed for my dogs and some accommodations for ourselves but before my son got back, we had gone out hunting and in a large cane brake my dogs found a big bear in a cane-house, which he had fixed for his winter-quarters, as they some times do.
When my lead dog found him, and raised the yell, all the rest broke to him but none of them entered his house until we got up. I en couraged my dogs, and they knowed me so well that I could have made them seize the old serpent himself, with all his horns and heads and cloven foot and ugliness into the bargain, if he would only have come to light, so that they could have seen him. They bulged in and in an instant the bear followed them out and I told my friend to shoot him as he was mighty wrathy to kill a bear. He did so and killed him prime. We carried him to our camp, by which time my son had returned, and after we got our dinners we packed up, and cut for the house of my old friend, whose name was Davidson.
We got there and staid with him that night and the next morning, having salted up our meat, we left it with him and started to take a hunt be tween the Obion lake and the Red-foot lake; as there had been a dreadful harricane, which passed between them, and I was sure there must be a heap of bears in the fallen timber. We had gone about five miles without seeing any sign at all but at length we got on some high cany ridges and, as we rode along, I saw a hole in a large black oak and on examining more closely, I dis covered that a bear had climbed the tree. I could see his tracks going up, but none coming down, and so I was sure he was in there. A person who is acquainted with bear-hunting can tell easy enough when the varment is in the hollow, for as they go up they don’t slip a bit, but as they come down they make long scratches with their nails.
My friend was a little ahead of me but I called him back and told him there was a bear in that tree and I must have him out. So we lit from our horses and I found a small tree which I thought I could fall so as
to lodge against my bear tree and we fell to work chopping it with our tomahawks. I intended, when we lodged the tree against the other, to let my little son go up and look into the hole, for he could climb like a squir rel. We had chop’d on a little time and stop’d to rest when I heard my dogs barking mighty se vere at some distance from us and I told my friend I knowed they had a bear; for it is the nature of a dog, when he finds you are hunting bears, to hunt for nothing else; he becomes fond of the meat, and considers other game as “not worth a notice,” as old Johnson said of the devil.
We concluded to leave our tree a bit and went to my dogs and when we got there, sure enough they had an eternal great big fat bear up a tree, just ready for shooting. My friend again petitioned me for liberty to shoot this one also. I had a little rather not, as the bear was so big, but I came the old fellow like some great log had fell. I now missed one of my dogs, the same that I be fore spoke of as having treed the bear by himself sometime before, when I had started the three in the cane break. I told my friend that my missing dog had a bear somewhere, just as sure as fate, so I left them to butcher the one we had just killed and I went up on a piece of high ground to listen for my dog. I heard him barking with all his might some distance off and I pushed ahead for him. My other dogs hearing him broke to him, and when I got there, sure enough again he had another bear ready treed; if he hadn’t, I wish I may be shot. I fired on him and brought him down and then went back and help’d finish butchering the one at which I had left my friend. We then packed both to our tree where we had left my boy. By this time, the lit tle fellow had cut the tree down that we intended to lodge but it fell the wrong way; he had then feather’d in on the big tree, to cut that, and had found that it was nothing but a shell on the out side, and all doted in the middle, as too many of our big men are in these days having only an out side appearance. My friend and my son cut away on it and I went off about a hundred yards with my dogs to keep them from running under the tree when it should fall. On looking back at the hole, I saw the bear’s head out of it, looking down at them as they were cutting. I hollered to them to look up, and they did so; and McDaniel catched up his gun, but by this time the bear was out and coming down the tree. He fired at it, and as soon as it touch’d ground the dogs were all round it. They had a roll-and-tumble fight to the foot of the hill, where they stop’d him. I ran up, and putting my gun against the bear, fired and killed him. We now had three, and so we made our scaffold and salted them up.
IN the morning I left my son at the camp, and we started on towards the harricane; and when we had went about a mile, we started a very large bear, but we got along mighty slow on account of the cracks in the earth occasioned by the earth quakes. We, however, made out to keep in hearing of the dogs for about three miles, and then we come to the harricane. Here we had to quit our horses, as old Nick himself couldn’t have got through it without sneaking it along in the form that he put on, to make a fool of our old grand mother Eve. By this time several of my dogs had got tired and come back; but we went ahead on foot for some little time in the harricane when we met a bear coming straight to us, and not more than twenty or thirty yards off. I started my tired dogs after him and McDaniel pursued them and I went on to where my other dogs were. I had seen the track of the bear they were after and I knowed he was a screamer. I followed on to about the middle of the harricane but my dogs pursued him so close that they made him climb an old stump about twenty feet high. I got in shooting distance of him and fired, but I was all over in such a flutter from fatigue and running, that I couldn’t hold steady; but, how ever, I broke his shoulder and he fell. I run up and loaded my gun as quick as possible and shot him again and killed him. When I went to take out my knife to butcher him, I found I had lost it in coming through the harricane. The vines and briers was so thick that I would sometimes have to get down and crawl like a varment to get through at all; and a vine had, as I supposed, caught in the handle and pulled it out. While I was standing and studying what to do, my friend came to me. He had followed my trail through the harricane and had found my knife, which was mighty good news to me; as a hunter hates the worst in the world to lose a good dog or any part of his hunting-tools. I now left McDaniel to butcher the bear and I went after our horses and brought them as near as the nature of case would allow. I then took our bags and went back to where he was and when we had skin’d the bear, we fleeced off the fat and carried it to our horses at several loads. We then packed it up on our horses and had a heavy pack of it on each one. We now started and went on till about sunset, when I concluded we must be near our camp, so I hollered and my son answered me and we moved on in the direction to the camp. We had gone but a little way when I heard my dogs make a warm start again and I jumped down from my horse and gave him up to my friend and told him I would follow them. He went on to the camp and I went ahead after my dogs with all my might for a considerable dis tance, till at last night came on. The woods were very rough and hilly and all covered over with cane.
I now was compel’d to move on more slowly and was frequently falling over logs and into the cracks made by the earthquakes so that I was very much afraid I would break my gun. How ever I went on about three miles when I came to a good big creek, which I waded. It was very cold, the creek was about knee-deep, but I felt no great inconvenience from it just then, as I was all over wet with sweat from running and I felt hot enough. After I got over this creek and out of the cane, which was very thick on all our creeks, I listened for my dogs. I found they had either treed or brought the bear to a stop, as they continued barking in the same place. I pushed on as near in the direction to the noise as I could, till I found the hill was too steep for me to climb, and so I backed and went down the creek some distance till I came to a hollow, and then took up that, till I come to a place where I could climb up the hill. It was mighty dark and was difficult to see my way or any thing else. When I got up the hill, I found I had passed the dogs so I turned and went to them. I found, when I got there, they had treed the bear in a large forked poplar and it was setting in the fork.
I could see the lump, but not plain enough to shoot with any certainty, as there was no moon light and so I set in to hunting for some dry brush to make me a light; but I could find none, though I could find that the ground was torn mightily to pieces by the cracks.
At last I thought I could shoot by guess and kill him, so I pointed as near the lump as I could, and fired away. But the bear didn’t come he only climbed up higher and got out on a limb, which helped me to see him better. I now loaded up again and fired, but this time he didn’t move at all. I commenced loading for a third fire, but the first thing I knowed, the bear was down among my dogs and they were fighting all around me I had my big butcher in my belt and I had a pair of dressed buckskin breeches on. So I took out my knife and stood, determined, if he should get hold of me, to defend myself in the best way I could. I stood there for some time, and could now and then see a white dog I had, but the rest of them, and the bear, which were dark coloured, I couldn’t see at all, it was so miserable dark. They still fought around me, and sometimes within three feet of me but, at last, the bear got down into one of the cracks, that the earthquakes had made in the ground, about four feet deep, and I could tell the biting end of him by the hollering of my dogs. So I took my gun and pushed the muzzle of it about till I thought I had it against the main part of his body, and fired; but it hap pened to be only the fleshy part of his foreleg. With this, he jumped out of the crack, and he and the dogs had another hard fight around me, as before. At last, however, they forced him back into the crack again, as he was when I had shot.
I had laid down my gun in the dark, and I now began to hunt for it and, while hunting, I got hold of a pole and I concluded I would punch him awhile with that. I did so, and when I would punch him, the dogs would jump in on him, when he would bite them badly and they would jump out again. I concluded, as he would take punching so patiently, it might be that he would lie still enough for me to get down in th
e crack, and feel slowly along till I could find the right place to give him a dig with my butcher. So I got down, and my dogs got in before him and kept his head towards them, till I got along easily up to him. Placing my hand on his rump, I felt for his shoulder, just behind which I intended to stick him. I made a lounge with my long knife, and fortunately stuck him right through the heart, at which he just sank down and I crawled out in a hurry. In a little time my dogs all come out too and seemed satisfied, which was the way they always had of telling me that they had finished him.
I suffered very much that night with cold, as my leather breeches, and every thing else I had on, was wet and frozen. But I managed to get my bear out of this crack after several hard trials, and so I butchered him, and laid down to try to sleep. But my fire was very bad and I couldn’t find any thing that would burn well to make it any better and I concluded I should freeze, if I didn’t warm myself in some way by exercise. So I got up, and hollered a while, and then I would just jump up and down with all my might and throw myself into all sorts of motions. But all this wouldn’t do; for my blood was now getting cold and the chills coming all over me. I was so tired, too, that I could hardly walk but I thought I would do the best I could to save my life, and then, if I died, nobody would be to blame. So I went to a tree about two feet through and not a limb on it for thirty feet and I would climb up it to the limbs and then lock my arms together around it and slide down to the bottom again. This would make the insides of my legs and arms feel mighty warm and good. I continued this till daylight in the morning. How often I climb up my tree and slid down I don’t know, but I reckon at least a hundred times.
An Autobiography of Davy Crockett Page 11