The mode of hunting the black bear does not differ from that practised with the fox or wild cat. He is usually chased by dogs, and forced into his cave or a tree. If the former, he is shot down, or the tree, if hollow, is felled. Sometimes smoking brings him out. If he escapes to a cave, smoking is also tried; but if that will not succeed in dislodging him, he must be left alone, as no dogs will venture to attack him there. The hunter often tracks and kills him in the woods with a bullet from his rifle. He will not turn upon man unless when wounded or brought to bay. Then his assault is to be dreaded. Should he grasp the hunter between his great forearms, the latter will stand a fair chance of being hugged to death. He does not attempt to use his teeth like the grizzly bear, but relies upon the muscular power of his arms. The nose appears to be his tenderest part, and his antagonist, if an old bear-hunter, and sufficiently cool, will use every effort to strike him there. A blow upon the snout has often caused the black bear to let go his hold, and retreat terrified! The log trap is sometimes tried with success. This is constructed in such a way that the removal of the bait operates upon a trigger, and a large heavy log comes down on the animal removing it--either crushing it to death or holding it fast by pressure. A limb is sometimes only caught; but this proves sufficient. The same kind of trap is used throughout the northern regions of America by the fur trappers--particularly the sable hunters and trappers of the white weasel (_Mustela erminea_). Of course that for the bear is constructed of the heaviest logs, and is of large dimensions. Redwood related an adventure that had befallen him while trapping the black bear at an earlier period of his life. It had nearly cost him his life too, and a slight halt in his gait could still be observed, resulting from that very adventure. We all collected around the blazing logs to listen to the trapper's story. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. THE TRAPPER TRAPPED. "Well, then," began Redwood, "the thing I'm agoin' to tell you about, happened to me when I war a younker, long afore I ever thought I was a coming out hyar upon the parairas. I wan't quite growed at the time, though I was a good chunk for my age. "It war up thar among the mountains in East Tennessee, whar this child war raised, upon the head waters of the Tennessee River. "I war fond o' huntin' from the time that I war knee high to a duck, an' I can jest remember killin' a black bar afore I war twelve yeer old. As I growed up, the bar had become scacer in them parts, and it wan't every day you could scare up such a varmint, but now and then one ud turn up.