continuation of the reelfoot hunt—starts a big fellow in the “harricane”—snaking it through the brambles and fallen trees—trees the bear and kills him, and misses his hunting-knife—his knife found by mcdaniel—a terrible encounter with a bear after dark—davy kills him with his knife in a deep chasm caused by the earthquakes—the dogs are badly mauled, and davy is lost in the woods—he climbs up and down a smooth-barked tree all night to keep from freezing to death—another ’quake follows—a total of fifty-eight bears in four months.
the “harricanes” so often referred to by davy were undoubtedly the work of the earthquakes before described, together with the fierce wind-storms that seemed to be a part of the disturbances. the story of the reelfoot hunting-trip goes on as follows:
“in the morning we left my son at the camp, and we started on towards the harricane; and when[186] 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 earthquakes. [these cracks, which may still be traced after the lapse of a hundred years, ran from southwest to northeast, and in many places great trees that had been split in the middle, stood with divided trunks above the chasms.]
“we, however, managed to keep within 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 along in the form he put on to make a fool of our old grandmother eve. by this time several of my dogs had got tired and come back; but we went on ahead for some 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 know’d he was a screamer.
[187]
“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 within 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, however, 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 went after the horses, and brought them as near as the nature of the case[188] would allow. i then took our bags and went back to where he was; and when we had skinned the bear we fleeced off the fat and carried it to our horses in several loads. we then packed it upon our horses, and had a heavy load 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 distance, till at last night came on. the ground was very rough and hilly, and all covered over with cane. i now was compelled to move on more slowly; and was frequently falling over logs, and into the cracks of the earthquakes, so that i was very much afraid i would break my gun. however, i went about three miles, when i came to a good big creek, which i waded. it was very cold, and the creek[189] 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 in the direction of the noise, as far as i could, till i found the hill was too steep for me to climb, and so i backed and went down the creek for some distance, till i came to a hollow, and took up that, till i came to a place where i could climb the hill. it was mighty dark, and it was difficult to see my way or anything else. when i got up the hill, i found i had passed the dogs, and 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 moonlight; and so i set in to hunting for some dry bush to make me a light; but i could find none,[190] 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 clumb up higher, and got out on a limb, which helped me to see him better. i now loaded up and fired again, but he didn’t move at all this time. i commenced loading for a third fire, but the first thing i know’d, the bear was down among my dogs, and they were fighting all around me. i had my big butcher-knife 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, i couldn’t see at all, it was so miserable dark.
“they still fought around me, and within three feet of me; but at last the bear got down into one of the cracks that the earthquake had made in the ground, about four feet, and i could tell the biting[191] 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 happened 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 then began to hunt for my gun, which i had laid down in the dark; and, while hunting, i got hold of a pole, and i concluded i would punch him with it awhile. 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 into the 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 front of him and kept his head towards them, till i got along easily up to him; and, placing my hand on his rump, felt for his shoulder, just[192] behind where i intended to stick him. i made a lunge with my long knife, and fortunately struck him right through the heart, at which he just sank down, and i crawled out in a hurry.”
davy had to stay all night at the place where he had killed the bear, and nearly froze to death before morning. to avoid this, he hit upon a plan that would be impossible for most men to carry out. he found a two-foot tree near-by, without limbs for thirty feet, and by climbing it as far as the forks, and then sliding back to the ground, he managed to keep his blood in circulation.
when mcdaniel afterwards saw what davy had done, he said he wouldn’t have gone down into the place with the bear for all the bears in the woods.
the two men worked and hunted all the next day, and at night were glad to rest. they had gone to sleep as near the fire as they dared, when something happened; as davy says, “about ten o’clock there came a most terrible earthquake, which shook the earth so that we were rocked about like we had been in a cradle. we were very much[193] alarmed; for though we were accustomed to feel earthquakes, we were now right in the region which had been torn to pieces by them in 1812, and we thought it might take a notion and swallow us up, as the big fish did jonah.”
when the hunt ended, and the meat had been packed to their homes, both mcdaniel and davy had enough and to spare. davy says that during the fall and up to january, he killed fifty-eight bears, thus adding to his already great renown as a bear-hunter.
