MY LAST HUNT ON THE KINZUA. 89 



feet and as I could not reach my gun, threw myself onto him, 

 thinking to hold him down. 



Well I held him about as long as lightning would stay on a 

 limb. When I got through gazing at the hole in the brush where 

 I last saw him, I found that I was sadly in need of a new pair of 

 trousers and vest, as well as a jack knife. I searched a long 

 time in hopes of finding the knife, but did not. I had another 

 knife at camp and after about a two hour's job with needle and 

 thread, I managed to get the trousers so that they were passable 

 in a pinch and all the time that I was repairing the trousers, Bill 

 sat there laughing at me. Now this was the first time that I 

 had supposed dead deer come to life and give me the go-by, though 

 it was not the last time. 



I had given him what is called a fine shot, that is I had shot 

 him just across the back and the ball had struck one of the joints 

 or knuckles of the backbone as it proved. I had the satisfaction 

 of killing the same deer two or three days later or at least we 

 thought it was the same one. We had three or four days of 

 mild weather and as we had not been the rounds of the traps for 

 several days, only tending those that came handy while hunting 

 deer, we thought we would reverse the plan and go over all the 

 traps and pay but little attention to deer hunting unless we struck 

 a hot trail. We thought we would take in those traps first in 

 the direction where the bear traps were and go to the traps 

 farthest from camp and bring in some of the traps. We did not 

 expect to get any more bear as it was too late in the season for 

 bear to travel until they had their winter's sleep. 



We were in luck this time for as we had usually tended the 

 bear traps, the one that we went to first would have been the 

 last trap to come to. When We came in sight of where the trap 

 was set we saw that there had been a bear dance going on. As the 

 snow was several inches deep, we saw at a glance which way the 

 bear had gone and we only had to step to the brow of the ridge 

 and look down the hillside a little way to see bruin fast among 

 some small saplings. He was rolling and tumbling about trying to 

 release himself. 



He looked like a great black ball as he rolled about. We 



