American Big-Game Hunting 



But instead of doing so, he discarded his 

 rifle and reached for her tail. Ah, I thought 

 so ! for, as he gave a yank, up came her head, 

 her jaws flew open like clockwork, and a 

 snort came forth. But right between the eyes 

 went the deadly messenger, smashing her 

 skull and ending any prolonged suffering for 

 any of us. Her end accomplished, we turned 

 to the other partner. He had been taking it 

 all in, and was ready for a fight. He seemed 

 pretty fit, too. Fortunately, he could not come 

 up to us ; the snow-drift was too steep, and 

 he had only two serviceable legs to travel 

 with. Still he had true grit, and faced us; but 

 it was an unequal battle. 



Again the bullet reached its victim, and 

 brother ba'r lay quietly on his back with his 

 legs in the air. No need to trifle with this 

 bear's tail, as any fool could see that he was 

 dead. However, we pelted him with a lot of 

 snowballs, and then Woody went around to 

 his stump of a tail and pulled it while I stood 

 guard at his head. We took off our coats, and 

 soon had the skins off the pair of them. These 

 skins proved to be in the finest condition, 

 though the bears themselves were poor. I 



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