LETTER IV. 61 



cheer at the result of the two shots, and we 

 watched a little anxiously while the bear stretched 

 his strong fore-arms in his last throes. As he 

 did so, a hollow growl or groan sounded in the 

 thicket behind us, eliciting from my old guide a 

 horrified exclamation of ' My God ! there's the 

 old one,' whilst for one moment I feared there 

 would be a general stampede from what was 

 really only the last effort in ventriloquism of a 

 dying bear. But the men stood, and next 

 moment we were laughing over the odd illusion, 

 while cautiously forcing our way through the 

 brake and up the moraine to our quarry. There 

 was a good deal of stoning done, to make ' quite, 

 quite sure ' that he was dead ; and then we skinned 

 him, and set up his naked carcass as a warning 

 to his tribe, and an advertisement to other 

 travellers of our success. As we tugged away 

 at his skin, old S. gave a little lecture on natural 

 history as known in the Hope Mountains, point- 

 ing out, amongst other things, that when dis- 

 turbed by me the bear had been taking a 

 breakfast of white-willow berries, as an aperient 

 before turning in for the winter, now close at 

 hand. According to S., the bears are in the 

 habit of going through a regular course of medi- 

 cine, ending with large doses of dead rotten 

 wood, taken to stop and counteract the effect 



