BATISTE, THE BEAR HUNTER 157 



ton jours ! the bear ! it is a beast ! always al 

 ways ! &quot; And his hands clinch. 



Then he falls to carving of the little wooden ani 

 mals and weaving of sad, sad, bitter thoughts into the 

 warp of the Indian mat. 



Are such onslaughts common among bears, or are 

 they the mad freaks of the bear s nature? President 

 Roosevelt tells of two soldiers bitten to death in the 

 South- West; and M. L Abbe Dugast, of St. Boniface, 

 Manitoba, incidentally relates an experience almost 

 similar to that of Ba tiste which occurred in the North- 

 West. Lest Ba tiste s case seem overdrawn, I quote 

 the Abbe s words : 



&quot; At a little distance Madame Lajimoniere and the 

 other women were preparing the tents for the night, 

 when all at once Bouvier gave a cry of distress and 

 called to his companions to help him. At the first 

 shout, each hunter siezed his gun and prepared to de 

 fend himself against the attack of an enemy; they hur 

 ried to the other side of the ditch to see what was the 

 matter with Bouvier, and what he was struggling with. 

 They had no idea that a wild animal would come near 

 the fire to attack a man even under cover of night; for 

 fire usually has the effect of frightening wild beasts. 

 However, almost before the four hunters knew what 

 had happened, they saw their unfortunate companion 

 dragged into the woods by a bear followed by her two 

 cubs. She held Bouvier in her claws and struck him 

 savagely in the face to stun him. As soon as she saw 

 the four men in pursuit, she redoubled her fury against 

 her prey, tearing his face with her claws. M. Lajimon 

 iere, who was an intrepid hunter, baited her with the 

 butt end of his gun to make her let go her hold, as he 



