Memories of a Bear Hunter 



with his head from me, exposing his back and 

 shoulders. His head was so placed that I feared 

 to shoot at it. I determined then to shoot at his 

 back, just behind the shoulders, depending on get- 

 ting a second shot before he could do much. When 

 the shot was fired, the bear gave no squall an 

 indication that he was ready to fight and 

 scrambled up the side gulch toward which he was 

 headed. Before he had gone ten feet from the 

 edge of the gulch, I fired a second shot at his body 

 without stopping him. Just then the dog passed 

 me like a whirlwind. It was important to stop 

 the bear before he reached a pine thicket toward 

 which he was headed, and I fired a third shot, 

 hoping to hit near the root of the tail and paralyze 

 his hindquarters. Just as I was on the point of 

 pulling the trigger, the dog got in the way, and 

 I raised the rifle slightly, just grazing the rump 

 of the bear, which, with the dog, had disappeared 

 into the pine thicket. Out of patience with myself, 

 and grumbling over the bad luck that after so 

 much work the bear should escape, I followed 

 rapidly luckily on my side of the gulch and 

 had reached a position still further up the gulch, 

 when I heard a rustling in the pine thicket, and 

 out rushed Nip, closely followed by the bear, evi- 

 dently furious with rage. Now, an ill-bred, badly 



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