Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 7 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Bear Turned the Tables on Hunter
The following story came from George H. Wilson's column "Old Time Stuff" in the Evening Citizen, Ottawa, 10 August 1929.
Mr. Fred Parent, of Wakefield, tells how in the early 1880s on Phillip's (sic) Lake his father used to make a practice of catching bears by drowning them. Whenever he saw a bear enter the lake to swim to the other side, Parent Sr. would jump into log canoe and start after the bear.
When he caught up with it he would press his paddle on the bear's head to push it under the water. The bear, in order to knock the paddle off its head would throw one paw over its head and then the other. While the bear was trying to dislodge the paddle both its paws would be idle and Parent Sr. Would so depress the bear's head under the water so that it would drown.
One day while trying to thus treat a bear, the bear turned and climbed onto the far end of the canoe and tried to upset it. Parent Sr. with his end of the canoe well out of the water on account of the weight of the bear, paddled for shore. The bear did not try to attack the man.
As the canoe was not far from shore when the incident occurred, Parent Sr. was able to make a landing. As soon as the canoe grounded the bear climbed off and waddled away into the woods.