164 The Wilderness Hunter 



on which we stood we saw by the swaying of the 

 tall plants that the bear was coming our way. The 

 hunter was standing some ten feet distant, a hem- 

 lock trunk being between us; and the next mo- 

 ment the bear sprang clean up the bank the other 

 side of the hemlock, and almost within arm's-length 

 of my companion. I do not think he had intended 

 to charge; he was probably confused by the bullet 

 through his neck, and had by chance blundered out 

 of the hollow in our direction ; but when he saw the 

 hunter so close he turned for him, his hair bristling 

 and his teeth showing. The man had no cartridge 

 in his weapon, and with his pack on could not have 

 used it anyhow; and for a moment it looked as if 

 he stood a fair chance of being hurt, though it is 

 not likely that the bear would have done more than 

 knock him down with his powerful forepaw, or per- 

 chance give him a single bite in passing. However, 

 as the beast sprang out of the hollow he poised for 

 a second on the edge of the bank to recover his bal- 

 ance, giving me a beautiful shot, as he stood side- 

 wise to me; the bullet struck between the eye and 

 ear, and he fell as if hit with a pole axe. 



Immediately the Indian began jumping about the 

 body, uttering wild yells, his usually impassive face 

 lighted up with excitement, while the hunter and I 

 "stood at rest, leaning on our rifles and laughing. 

 It was a strange scene, the dead bear lying in the 

 shade of the giant hemlocks, while the fantastic- 



