Over a century ago readers of sporting journals in America and Europe relished the tales of Mississippi Delta bear hunter Robert Eager Bobo (1847-1902). Yet, in the years since, this most famous bear hunter of the late 1800s has been all but forgotten - until now. The Bear Hunter brings to the modern reader, not only the true chronicles of Bobo's bear hunting, but a fascinating and thoroughly entertaining picture of pioneer life in the nineteenth century wilderness of the lower Mississippi Valley and of the wilderness environment from which they wrested their farms and plantations in the post civil war years. The book also contains rare descriptions of firearms and the deadly cane knives used in hunting, the Delta pioneers' preferences in hunting horses and hounds, and their techniques for building the necessary and ubiquitous dugout canoes of that time and place. Of special interest are the descriptions of the 19th century Delta's dense forests and the vast, impenetrable canebrakes - home to everything from the Bachman's warbler to the red wolf and the ivory billed woodpecker to the panther (the southern term for Puma concolor) - an environment found only on the pages of history today.