But
they were all badly whipped or scared. They had got enough of the bears.
"Sir Bruin to his forest flew,
With heart as light as paws were fleet;
Nor further dare the curs pursue,
It was a 'masterly retreat.'"
--_Bishop._
When we got to the battle ground we could see where they had fought,
clenched and rolled over and over. The blood of the dogs was sprinkled
all around on the snow. We saw that it was the large bears which did the
fighting. They would not leave the small ones but fought for them. We saw
in one place, where the fight was the most severe, one bear had attempted
to climb a tree. He went up a piece on one side of it and down the other,
then jumped off, before we got in sight, and ran. We could see by the
marks of the claws, on the bark of the tree, and the tracks, where he
jumped oft, that he had climbed part way up.
I have seen hundreds of times in the woods where bears had reached up as
high as they could around little trees and scratched them. It showed the
plainest on beech trees as their bark is smooth. It is easy to see the
size of the bear's paws and his length from the ground by these marks on
the trees.
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