A FROZEN SUMMER. 433 



tor, and myself ran and sculled " across country," 

 but our game was out of sight, Dunbar and Ericksen 

 in cliase. Going to the spot where the animals stood, 

 we found blood, and followed it on two trails, so that 

 we knew two of the bears were hit. 



But we lost them. Dunbar and Ericksen kept on, 

 and managed to drop the heretofore uninjured cub, but 

 only for a moment. The many leads gave the bears 

 too great an advantage, and though the trail indicated 

 severe wounds, the chase might have continued for 

 hours before any approach to an end would have oc- 

 curred. Dunbar tells me he noticed the great care 

 over and solicitude evinced by the mother for her 

 young. The cubs being wounded were more disposed 

 to stop than to go on ; but the parent, though hurt her- 

 self, kept pushing them before her, covering their re- 

 treat and nosing them into the water in front, before 

 she would leave the ice herself. It is too bad to hurt 

 or disable these creatures, and have them suffer and 

 die perhaps beyond our reach ; but it is the fortune of 

 war, and as we try to kill when we shoot, we cannot 

 help it if we only wound. I am satisfied that unless at 

 very short ranges, or a vital part is hit, an ordinary 

 rifle bullet like a Remington or a Winchester is of no 

 use. An explosive bullet is required. Unless dogs can 

 surround a bear and hold him at bay, he may have 

 half a dozen bullets in hiui and yet escape. Over or- 

 dinary ice the chase is too unequal for a man alone ; 

 over ice cut up b}^ ponds and rivulets, as our neighbor- 

 hood is, a successful chase is a physical impossibility. 

 The water is too deep for a man to wade, and the dogs 

 will run a mile before they will cross three yards of 

 water. This, of course, gave us something to talk about 



28 



