Hunting at High Altitudes 



mannered dog, under these circumstances would 

 naturally have rushed back to his master for pro- 

 tection, but Nip did nothing of the sort. With an 

 intelligence quite human, as it seemed to me, he 

 kept just far enough ahead of the bear to lead it 

 on, the dog's head turned first on one side, then 

 on the other, always with one eye on the pursuer. 

 He led the bear straight across the open ground, 

 causing him to expose his side to me, and saying as 

 plainly as could be, "Now, boss, give him a good 

 shot." I took advantage of the opportunity, hit- 

 ting him in the side. The ball should have knocked 

 him down, but did not. On the contrary, he turned 

 from the dog and rushed straight toward me. In 

 reloading, the shell stuck in the chamber and the 

 breech-block could not be closed. The bear was 

 near the brink of the gulch, evidently about to 

 jump over. 



The dog did not hesitate. As soon as the bear 

 turned on me he was immediately at the bear's 

 heel, and at the critical moment nabbed it and 

 held on as long as he dared. The angry bear 

 whirled, turned on the dog and chased him back 

 fifty yards to the edge of the bottom. This gave 

 me time to reload, and when the bear stopped, I 

 fired again. Again it charged me on a full run, 

 and this time the dog was not able to stop him. 



174 



