USA > Tennessee > Old times in West Tennessee : reminiscences, semi-historic, of pioneer life and the early emigrant settlers in the Big Hatchie country > Part 7
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Cary remarked: "Yes; I have known him to spend night after night after turkies. Getting into a gang, he would keep on shooting until he had the last one of them."
Just then the Captain came in, very quiet in his movement. He carefully put away his gun. It was cold, and he looked it. Squaring himself down upon a bear-skin, all waited for him to give an account of his movements, or for some one to question him as to what he had done. He finally broke the silence.
" Well, I see you have brought in plenty of meat. Good luck for a short hunt."
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"Yes," said Cary, "we not only had luck, but more fun and excitement than is usual in a short hunt," then recounting the full particulars, as they occurred.
"I was satisfied, when I saw Mr. Temple's dogs, that they were all right. I hope to have the pleas ure of seeing them in a fight to-morrow. Seeing a large gang of turkies make off toward the bottom, as we were fixing to pitch camp here, I concluded that I would go and roost them. Large gang of fat gobblers! Pete, we will go after them as soon as the moon gets above the trees." (The moon was then in her second quarter, and had risen.)
" Yes, sir, Pete will be with Mars Albert when he goes! Now, come and eat, Mars Albert. They have all eaten, and here is a panfull of nice, tender bear-steak. Come while it's hot."
The Captain responded to Pete's invitation. The moon being in the right position for the Captain to " go for" his turkies, started, followed by Pete. No one was invited to go with him. He had been gone but a short while when we heard him shoot. Soon he shot again, and again, until we counted seven shots within a short hour. By eleven he and Pete were back, loaded. Pete had four, and the Captain two. Throwing down his six fat gobblers, the Cap tain remarked that he had killed the seventh, but that it fell across the lagoon.
"Pete," says he, "you must go after that turkey in the morning; do you hear?"
" Yes, Mars Albert. Pete hears, and he gwine after him in the morning, be sure that I will."
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Adjusting ourselves around the fire, with our heads pillowed on saddles, we slept till early morning. Our first morning in the woods, we were up before day, talking over the hunt before us. We were to hunt the Big Hurricane. Guns had been shot off, wiped out, reloaded and freshly primed. The gray streaks , of the early morn indicated a sunshiny day. The sun was not yet up, and we had not eaten breakfast. The ribs were roasting and the steaks frying. While waiting, Temple remarked to Cary that he would like to know something more of the Big Hurricane- enough to enable him to get out of it if he should get in.
" Well," said Cary, "it is a mile or so above us, on the river. The river touches it, or it touches the river, in two places, about a quarter of a mile from where we will strike it, and again at its extreme upper end. It.is about a mile and a half-perhaps more-long, and about one-third as wide. The river leaves it where it first strikes it as we go up, making a big bend. This bend takes in, perhaps, as much as three hundred acres-is, for the most part, over- flowed land, mostly open; fine hunting woods. Where the bend elbows it is high, dry land, and is formed into an island by the river making a cut- off in high water. This island is a thick canebrake. The Hurricane will best describe itself when you see it and go into it. I will say, however, that there is not an original tree in it. All were blown down or topped off by the tornado' that passed over it; when, no one knows. From the appearance of the undergrowth, it must have been ages ago. Near
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the river it is thick cane; the middle and outer por- tion, every variety of scrubby undergrowth, filled up with briers. Except for the rotting out of the old fallen trees, or logs-many, however, are yet in a sound state of preservation-egress into, or out of it, would be impossible. The wild beasts and var mints that have made it their haunts and homes for ages, have made many of these narrow opening. smooth and hard by their frequent travels. It is just the thickest thicket you were ever in, Mr. Tem ple; but you will know more of it, before evening Pete has announced breakfast. Let's eat and be off .? " Well," said Temple, "I feel that I have already been in it, from your description. It's no place to hunt bear. But to gratify a curiosity I have, I would, as a bear-hunter, turn my face from it."
"And so would I. As a hunter, I fully agree with you. I have lost more time, and had more dogs killed, and lost more game in it, than anywhere else. My object in wishing you to join us up here was to take, if possible, an old bear that has worried us and our dogs for more than three seasons, and carries in his huge body more than a half dozen bullets out of my rifle. We have followed him on a run from the Hurricane to the mouth of Cane creek, more than fifteen miles, and back, in the same day, losing him in the Hurricane. He is a monster, and it is worth a week's hunt to take him."
"Well, we will try, to-day."
"Come," sadi Cary, "let's go."
We were all off for the Big Hurricane, on foot, of course. A short half hour brought us to the high
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bluff where the Hurricane reaches the river. It be- came so thick and impenetrable that we were forced to wind our way down to the water's edge and clam- ber under the bluff until we reached the bend in the river where it leaves the Hurricane. We had not more than gotten in the open bottom when the dogs gave evidence that a bear or a panther was about. "Old Start" raised his smellers, and with stiffening tail he went off up the river in the bend, followed by the other half-hounds. They were soon on a running trail. Our sprightly young leader seemed impressed with the same spirit that animated the dogs. Hastily telling Temple to follow him, and the rest to string out along the Hurricane, he was off, following the dogs. We strung out as directed. The Captain, being a quick and fast runner, he was off. I kept close up with him, Pet and Ab behind. We could hear the increased cry of the dogs as we ran. Making a couple of hundred yards or more, the Captain halted, to get a better ear of the move- ments of the dogs, when we discovered that they were on a full run, in full cry, coming in the direc- tion of the Hurricane, aiming to pass in above us. We moved up a little and waited. The Captain remarked that we would hardly reach the jungle before the dogs would bring the animal to a stop. "Bless me, what music." Fourteen dogs in full cry, soon in the morning, clear as a bell, not a breeze to disturb sound, in the open wood, and the pack in full, excited cry, was music most' ravishing to the hunter's ear. On they come !. Now we see him! Ile is a monster of his kind, black, burly, and fero-
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cious-looking, running straight as an arrow toward us. Now the dogs gain on him-he is making his best run-running for dear life. Cæsar leads leaves the pack, and is fast gaining on him, giving no mouth. He runs straight and swift, as if accel- erated by electric force ! He is upon him! The yellow is in contrast with the black!' He takes him by the fore-arm! His run is broken! He stops him, and the pack is upon him! Bless me, how intensely exciting! Let's go up and enjoy the fight! The Captain and myself moved up. The scene was so exciting that we were in no hurry to dispatch him. Approaching nearer, the bear discovered us, and made a desperate plunge to get away. He had made but few bounds before Cæsar brought him to a stop again, when the half-hounds fought more vigorously, pinching him wherever they could get a hold. The bear was getting desperate, and the fight hot-"too hot," said the Captain. "Some of the dogs will get hurt. Shoot him!"
I replied that it was a dangerous place to shoot into; that he was more experienced, and for him to shoot, and shoot quick. He still insisted that I shoot first. Not hesitating again, for I had become all anxious to shoot, I approached within ten feet and watched my opportunity for the dogs to make an opening. It soon offered, and I fired, putting my ball in the region of his heart. In an instant he swung his great head around, biting at the place where the bullet had stung him, when the Captain fired, lodging a ball in his brain, abruptly terminat ing one of the most interesting and exciting bear
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fights it was ever hunter's lot to witness. The hunters were all up at the killing. Temple re- marked that the Captain and myself had had sport enough for one day.
"Yes," said Cary, "but we have something on hand likely to be a little more exciting. Mr. Tem- ple and I have agreed to have a little ugly fun after a panther. We can take him in less than thirty minutes, unless he has already hurried himself into the Hurricane, We saw bis tracks as we were crossing. a wet slash, a couple of hundred yards back. He had just passed. Bess was anxious to "go for" him. Just then Pete, Joe and Jack came in on a lope. They had been instructed to pass up on the outer side of the Hurricane, come around through the pass- able wood, and join us in the bottom. They had heard the dogs and our firing, which hurried them on. Leaving the dead bear in their charge, we went for the panther. Cary gave instructions that the hunters, excepting Temple, should hold a position between the dogs and the hurricane. He and Tem- pleton moved off to where they had seen the fresh sign. Reaching the place, the half-hounds went off on a running trail up the river, which put the Cap- tain, Pet, Ab and myself on a run to keep between them and the Hurricane. The Captain ahead, run- ning perhaps a quarter, the dogs were discovered to be going from us in the direction of an island in the elbow, made by the cut-off. The Captain sug- gested that we pursue them. In a big run we went until reaching the cut-off, where we halted to learn the situation. Cary and Temple had just crossed
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the cut-off (it was then dry) and were entering the thick cane in the direction of the dogs. They had treed him, and the Captain's quick eye was not long in discovering him. He said to us standing near: i''" See that fallen tree lodged in the fork of that big white oak; look in the fork and you will see him crouched upon the fallen tree, with his head toward the root."
''." Yes, we see him! we see him!" we exclaimed. The Captain was making ready to shoot, when Ab said: is
"But, Cap., he is in an ugly fix there for a good shot, and he is more than a hundred yards off-a long shot."
"Yes; but if we go further we can't see him for -. the cane. See him drawing himself up, making ready to spring; he sees the hunters and is either aiming to spring upon one of them or leave," said the Captain, leveling his rifle upon him.
With a steady and unerring aim he fired. The panther made a marvelous leap in the direction of the root of the fallen tree. Not a sound except the sharp ring of the rifle and the echo disturbed the stillness for more than a minute, when a dog squalled, then another, and another, and then the dull report of a rifle. ". The panther had discovered Temple and Cary as they reached the opening in the cane made by a fallen tree, but the thick cane overhead pre- vented them from seeing him. The Captain's quick eye in seeing him making ready for the spring, and instant shot, was most opportune. The panther fell short of his aim and the dogs covered him; rising
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he dealt death and pain with his great paws, killing one dog outright and wounded two others severely. The thick cane and the sharp fight with the dogs prevented Temple and Cary from shooting. Making havoc among the dogs, he got hold of Bess; she was grappling under his broad throat, when Temple went to her relief with his knife. Letting Bess go, the monster furiously attacked Temple. Fearfully grappling him, with one of his heavy paws fast upon his left shoulder, the other around his body pinning his right fast, he was making a furious effort to stretch his broad jaws across his right shoulder close up to his neck. Temple, staggering back under the weight and desperate attack of the infuriated panther, was in a perilous situation. Cary, quickly as possible; was to his relief. Putting the muzzle of his rifle against the body of the panther over the region of the heart he fired, killing him instantly. In the mean time Temple had extricated his right arm from the folds of the panther, and, simultane- ously with Cary's shot, sent his knife up to the hilt into his vitals.
Cary went to work examining Temple, thinking it miraculous if he was not seriously hurt. Finding blood upon his shoulder and on his shirt collar, he was insisting upon his stripping off for a better examination, when the Captain, the Gaines and my- self came up. Temple was protesting against being hurt at all-only scratched a little. His leather blouse, lined with dressed buckskin, with other leather strappings, had protected him from the long claws of the panther.
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. The Captain, stooping down examining for his bullet-hole, remarked that he had only broken his lower jaw; that the distance he had shot was greater than he had expected, as his ball had fallen three inches. His aim was to lodge his bullet in his brain, but it fell below its aim. This discovery fully ex- plained why Temple's shoulder and neck was not crushed and mangled by the monster's jaws, and accounted for his being stained with blood.
"Well, Mr. Leader," said Ab, addressing himself to Cary, "I guess you are satisfied now with what you call ' a little ugly fun.' Our friend has madea miraculous escape."
"Yes," said Cary, "we are satisfied. We knewit was a little out of our line, but it was tempting, and we came near paying well for it."
" What will we do with him?" asked the Captain. "Blow for the boys, or drag him to where they are ?" "Just as you all may say," said Cary.
"Drag him, of course," remarked Ab, and suiting his action to his words, he soon had a vine ready and noosed around his neck, and we moved to where Pete and his companions were butchering the bear.
"Pete," said the Captain, "skin him carefully; it's my hide" (the first blood always took the hide).
Leaving Pete and his companions butchering the bear and skinning the panther, the hunters moved off to hunt the Big Hurricane. It was then in the early forenoon, the right time of the day to go in. Reaching a deep wash, where it debouched into the open bottom, Cary brought a halt, and said :
"Now, Mr. Temple, here is what I call the mouth
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of the 'Clay Gut;' it heads up in and drains a wet slash in the heart of the Hurricane. It is dry now, and we can walk up it. I call it the 'Clay Gut,' because it is washed out to the clay. It has, as you see, a hard clay bottom."
The hunters started up it, single file, to hunt for the oldest bear inhabitant of the woods. It had washed out six or eight feet deep. Winding up through the jungle, egress to or from it could only be made through the narrow openings made by the rotting out of the old logs; the trails were arched over by cane and vines; frequently small runs came into it, and we saw not the sun until we reached the slash.
Reaching the slash we halted to rest, when Cary remarked that he had been there only once. "It was," said he, "last November a year ago. Upon reaching the spot where we now are, I saw two large bucks with their horns locked; they seemed to be exhausted; and one was upon his knees. I shot the one standing, and killed the other with my knife. As I shot I saw a large panther move slowly away from near where they were standing, the same, most likely, we killed this morning; he was doubtless waiting to make his supper out of one of them, as he did, for I left them, not being able to take them away. They may have been locked together a day or more, judging from the manner in which the ground was torn up: They were the largest bucks I ever saw; you will say they are the largest deer horns you ever saw. I defy any one to pull them apart without breaking off a peg. We will go and
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find them; the panther certainly did not eat up the horns."
We went in search of the horns, but, reaching the spot where they were expected to be found, they were not there. Cary looked a little confounded. so certain was he of finding them where stated.
"Certainly no one has been here and taken them away. I have not been relating a dream," said he looking again from the position where he stood when relating the story of the bucks. "Yes; it was here I left them. Let me take a look in the direction I saw the panther move away." Walking some sixty or more yards, he came to the edge of the cane. "Here they are," says he.
We all had become anxious to see the locked horns, and were soon with him. They had been dragged to the edge of the cane, and were still locked. It must have been a powerful beast to have done it. They were there and not yet separated from the head. Larger deer horns none professed ever to have seen. All hands took a pull and tried to separate them, but gave it up that it could not be done without " breaking a peg."
While we were discussing the horns, the dogs were exploring the surroundings. Numerous wind- ing trails came into the slash from the jungle, smooth and hard-too hard to discover the foot-prints of the many travelers that passed over them. The opening made by the slash contained, perhaps, three acres, upon which no vegetation grew-it was a deer-lick.
" Hark!" said Cary, "that's old Start."
In a moment several of the half-hounds broke out
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in a fierce bay. Moving across the slash, we had not reached the edge of the cane before the whole pack were in, barking furiously. Cæsar and Bess stood by their master waiting for the words "go in." The dogs were baying less than an hundred yards from where we stood, and it was impossible for man to get to them except upon his knees.
"Now," said the Captain, "if it should happen to be the oldest inhabitant, he will not leave if he is well housed; no, not so long as he can keep his tail- end protected. Some of us must slip in-crawl in -and give him a start."
" If crawling is to be done, my young hunter friend here," pointing to myself, "may be relied upon," said Temple.
" It is an ugly job for a grown man, but for a boy who has not forgotten how to crawl, he would be in his element," was my remark, accepting the honor. I simply asked Temple to let his dogs "go in," and was off, examining my priming as I went. I soon found a winding trail in the right direction. Half bent I went in with heart palpitating-right up in my throat. Reaching within twenty yards, I came within full view of him and the dogs through a narrow vista, which was made by the rotting out of a large fallen tree, the stump of which formed the rear of his lair. The cane tops and vines had completely arched over the stump. With his back to the old stump, he was striking right and left at the approach of the dogs. Alive to the situation, knowing that I filled the only passway out, and that my shot must be a death one or be run over and
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possibly hurt by him, I resolved to wait my chance for a better shot. The dogs formed a half circle .in front of him; his head was in perpetual motion.I waited for him to rise upon his hind feet, when I felt sure of putting my bullet in his heart. Suddenly Cæsar and Bess passed me, jumping over my left shoulder. The bear's attention was attracted by them, when he discovered me. Instantly he made a leap, leaping clear of the dogs in front. I had gotten over the bear-buck-ague, and felt steady. My rifle was leveled well upon his great broad head as he came in a straight line toward me, aiming to put my ball between his eyes. I fired; he fell to his knees. In an instant I saw that it was not death shot; my ball had struck too high, glancing over, taking off the skin for a couple or more inches and commenced reloading. The dogs covered him before he rose from the stunning effect of the shot He had only come to his knees. Cæsar and Bess were to their places, the half-hounds holding him well behind. Several of the dogs had gotten to the front, thinking it was all up with him. Rising upon his rump he made a plunge, but was impeded by the dogs. Cæsar and Bess were fast hold of their favorite catch, close under his deep sides; they were holding on to their part of his broad arms close up to his body. I had moved my position, pressing one side into the cane to his broadside. By this time he had fully recovered from his stun; a large yellow quarter-hound of Pet's was at his head; in attempt- ing to make his escape he was prevented by the cane and became a victim of the monster's grea
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jaws, crushing him through and through close over his vitals. Making another plunge he relieved him- self of Cæsar, dashing him against the cane, and broke for the slash. I was just in the act of priming for another shot; a moment more and I would have been the little king bee of the hunt, for he was the " oldest inhabitant" of the woods. The hunters in the slash stood ready for him; he crashed through the cane like a young tornado. Clearing the cane, five well-aimed rifle bullets were shot into him, three passing through his heart. His running being accelerated, he ran across the slash and fell full length upon his broad belly at the head of the clay- gut, with a loud groan or moan, as if human. When . we reached him he was dead-dead as he fell. The monster bear, the oldest inhabitant of his kind, the bear that had worried our friend Cary and his dogs so often, the great bear of the Big Hatchie country, of the Big Hurricane, lay dead before us. We spread ourselves out on the ground to rest; tired, though dealing out but little physical toil. The hunter's mind, soul and heart had been in intense excitement till the killing-we were tired from the relax. Cary blowed his horn for the boys; we waited their com- ing. It gave us time to rest and comment upon the last half hour's work, which our good looking young leader said in the early morning was worth a week's hunting. . We had relieved our friend Cary's hunt- ing ground of his two troubles-the great bear and the panther. He was as fat as bear of his size and age ever get to be. Without any means of weighing him, the hunters' estimate as he lay, was that he
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would weigh a little short of seven hundred pounds His age, who knew ? He had grown gray around the eyes, and his teeth worn off more than half their original length. The writer is, perhaps, the only one living of the hunters in that celebrated hunt when the big bear of the Big Hurricane was killed He was then a boy in his thirteenth year; the the youngest of the hunters was his friend Cary, who died several years after. Whether any of the other are among the living is unknown to him; if living they will testify to the material statements in the account of this hunt-it took place forty-five year ago. If the old negro Jack is living he will bea witness, if the reader thinks the writer is dealing in fiction. Jack was then thirty; he was an ole young negro; he was living in Memphis last year When the boys arrived all hands went to work some holding, some ripping, and others skinning The hide was soon stripped from his huge carcass The five bullet holes were plainly in relief, and each hunter could have claimed his shot from the size of the hole, either one of which would have killed him; a small breakfast plate would have covered them all. Four poles were procured, a quarter put on each, and two men to a pole, we started bac down the clay-gut. The hide was assigned to the writer; it was as much as he could possibly carry more, had he not had a hand in the killing. Afte much toil we reached the bottom. The two bean killed that morning were more than three horse could pack, so we bent down some saplings and hun up enough for another trip. The boys had plenty
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time, as the sun had just crossed the meridian.
We all returned to the camp the same way that we came, and spent the afternoon talking over the events and incidents of the morning. A fine, fat gobbler was suspended before the fire, roasting for our dinner.
Reader, did you ever eat of a fat gobbler, a wild one, roasted before the fire? None of you young ones havn't, I guess, for it was a dish for " old times," before cooking stoves were brought into use. Rich, brown and juicy, I have seen them carved at my father's table.
An hour before sundown, the Captain stalked off to roost another gang of turkeys, remarking, that for his eating he wouldn't give one fat turkey for a whole six-hundred-pound bear. No one dissented.
The sunset gave promise of another fair day. The old proverb, that
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