'Memories of a Bear Hunter 



determined to stir the bear out. We thought that 

 we could shoot through the brush with solid balls, 

 and if we wounded him he might be angry enough 

 to rush out. I rode up to within a short distance 

 of the thicket on my side, but failed to hear any 

 movement in it. Messiter, however, had some 

 idea of where the bear lay, and it was determined 

 that we should fire into that locality from each 

 side and see if that would induce him to move 

 about. About this time Fishel arrived with the 

 greyhound, but no orders or persuasion could get 

 him into the thicket. 



Messiter and I now began to bombard the place 

 where the bear was supposed to be. I was shoot- 

 ing a 45O-grain solid ball with 90 grains of powder, 

 and this penetrated the willow brush admirably. 

 On the other hand, Messiter's rifle was a double- 

 barreled Long rifle, carrying a i6o-grain express 

 bullet, with 120 grains of powder. This bullet 

 was too light to penetrate far. We finally made 

 his hiding place so warm that he rushed to the 

 upper end of the thicket and charged fiercely out 

 to Messiter's side. Each one of us got in a shot 

 and each wounded him, when he retired to the 

 thicket and again lay still. Messiter now left his 

 perch, mounted his horse and came up on the 

 opposite side of the thicket. The stream bottom 



85 



