A Bear Story.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 76

A Bear Story.

— Bruin Eats His Way On*.— John! Gladwyn Jebb once "joined camp" 1 in the Rockies with an American colonel, j also out after game. Returning- to their j tent one day, to their delight they earnc ! across bear-traclce close to it — the brute being tempted to the camp, doubtless, by the scent of the fresh meat hanging up As ho made off too quickly for them j to get a shot, <they set to work to oon- | struct a "fall-trap"— a thing rather like a gigantic mouse-trap, built with heavy logs, and ueually quite efficacious. The drawback, however, to this apparatus j in tho mind of the sportsman is that, unless the prey is to be ignominiou*lv murdered by being shot at through ohinks in tho logs, itihe- dcoi of the trap must be lifted while the hunter takes his chance of a flying 6hot ; with Ihe prospect of an animated five minutes before him should he miss ! Well, after preparing a safe shelter for I their expected visitor, the two men retired ( to rest, and early next morning they went to see if he had arrived. Thoy found him securely fastened down, and savagely worrying the logs in his efforts to get out. Of course, his raptois were charmed with their success, and at ones begarn to diecues ' which of them should lift the door, while the other stood at the poet of honour and 1 took the shot. They were both good sports- ! men. a-nd neither liked to deprive the otl er : of the first chance at the enemy, po they j argued the matter for sorn© time until, j by a happy inspiration, the colonel proposed settling it by a game of cards — the winner to shoot, while the losej turned the bear out for him. There happened to "be no smooth piece of ground close by, so they adjourned to. a flat rock about 50yds off, and with cartridges and buckshot for "chips " settled down to a game of poker. The game soon began to get exciting on its own account, as the cards favoured first one and then the other ; and little brightj eyed chipmunks and busy squirrels ran to ' and fro between the players, attracting no I noiic-e at all. Thoy had been playing f or two hours, and the sun had climbod far up towaTds the meridian, wlien, with a laugh, the colonel raked jn Jack's laot buckshot and won— winning, b-oside& the o'.akes,

the right to generously present his, companion with the first shot. They reloaded their rifles, and softly approached the trap, Jack getting into a position which would give him an excellent shot wihem the bea!r bolted, while the colonel • quietly stepped on the roof in. order to lift the door. As he did so, he turned his face slowly towards his friend. A look of misery and disgust was :n: n his eyes, ac, with remarks that it would take two cowboys and a muleteer to do jusf'ce to, ho said, " ! ! ! ! if the ! ! ! brute hasn't eaten his way out while we've been fooling with those ! ! ! ! cards!" ' — Hypnotism is practised among insects. A hypnotist tells us that a queen bee can> hypnotise her whole hive whenever she wants to. She makes a curious humming sound, and within a moment or two every bee in the colony falls into a hypnotic trance. The death's-head 1 hawk-moih is also a hypnotist of groat power. This creature, : indeed, makes its living out of hypnotism, j Entering a hive, it niakeis a sound r.ot j unlike the queen bee's note, and, the bees ! imtnediaitely sinking into slumber, the moth ,' proceeds to plunder at its leisure. — An. interestin-g, but not surprising, de- ' tail of the Italian zoologist's claam 10 have discovered that fishes converse by means of \ buzzes is his point that the red gurnet isi j the most talkative. The gurnet or gur- { naTd derives its name from a kind of sfrunt ■ which it utters when taken- out of the water (French "gi-ogner," to grunt). Nearly 8000 years ago Aristotle recorded that, though fishes, having no lungs, have therefore no voice, several of them can, emit grunting sounds. But this kind of protest, -which might possibly "be considered! purely automatic, is a good deal short of the conversational powers which the Italian itfeributea to the proverbially dumb tribe. — Chronicle. ! r __ ,