HUNTING THE GRISLY. 99 



cuffed him two or three times, and then went 

 on her way. 



The only time Woody ever saw a man killed 

 by a bear was once when he had given a touch 

 of variety to his life by shipping on a New 

 Bedford whaler which had touched at one of 

 the Puget Sound ports. The whaler went up 

 to a part of Alaska where bears were very 

 plentiful and bold. One day a couple of 

 boats' crews landed ; and the men, who were 

 armed only with an occasional harppon or 

 lance, scattered over the beach, one of them, 

 a Frenchman, wading into the water after 

 shell-fish. Suddenly a bear emerged from 

 some bushes and charged among the aston- 

 ished sailors, who scattered in every direction ; 

 but the bear, said Woody, " just had it in for 

 that Frenchman," and went straight at him. 

 Shrieking with terror he retreated up to his 

 neck in the water ; but the bear plunged in 

 after him, caught him, and disembowelled him. 

 One of the Yankee mates then fired a bomb 

 lance into the bear's hips, and the savage 

 beast hobbled off into the dense cover of the 

 low scrub, where the enraged sailor folk were 

 unable to get at it. 



The truth is that while the grisly generally 

 avoids a battle if possible, and often acts with 

 great cowardice, it is never safe to take liberties 

 with him ; he usually fights desperately and 

 dies hard when wounded and cornered, and 

 exceptional individuals take the aggressive on 

 small provocation. 



During the years I lived on the frontier I 



