THE MONARCH OF THE MOUNTAIN. 101 



dead ; and, in her retreat, they wounded the dam, but not 

 mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity from any 

 but unfeeling minds to mark the affectionate concern ex- 

 pressed by this poor beast, in the last moments of her 

 expiring young. Though she was sorely wounded, and 

 could but just crawl to the place where they lay, she car- 

 ried the lump of flesh which she had fetched away and 

 placed it before them. Seeing that they refused to eat, 

 she laid her paws first upon one and then upon the other, 

 and endeavored to raise them up. It was pitiful to hear 

 her moan. 



21. " When she found she could not stir them, she 

 went off, and, stopping when she had got to some dis- 

 tance, she looked back and moaned. When she found 

 that she could not entice them away, she returned, and, 

 smelling around them, began to lick their wounds. She 

 went off a second time as before, and, having crawled a 

 few paces, looked again behind her, and for some time 

 stood moaning. But still her cubs not rising to follow 

 her, she returned to them again, and, with signs of inex- 

 pressible fondness, went round one and round the other, 

 pawing them and moaning. Finding at last that they 

 were cold and lifeless, she raised her head toward the ship 

 and growled at the murderers, who then shot her with a 

 volley of musket-balls. She fell between her cubs, and 

 died licking their wounds." 



