52 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



his pursuer reached the foot. The latter then commenced 

 a regular siege by placing its paws against the tree, look- 

 ing savagely upward, and growling spitefully at intervals. 

 Bill, feeling safe, took matters philosophically until he be- 

 gan to get hungry toward evening, when he commenced 

 hurling epithets at the besieger, and told it in vigorous lan- 

 guage that it was of mean descent, and was anything but 

 a " gentleman " of a bear. This having no effect, he tried 

 to hit it in the eye with cones ; but this act only increased 

 its anger, and caused it to shake the tree violently, as if it 

 would like to shake him down. 



Having used up all the cones within his immediate reach, 

 Bill tried to get at some others, and this produced a ca- 

 tastrophe he had not expected, for the bough on which he 

 had been sitting had been steadily giving way under his 

 weight; and when the pressure was removed from the 

 strongest to one of its weakest points by his movements, 

 it gave way at once, and he went downward with lightning 

 speed. He thought, of course, that it was all up with him ; 

 but when he reached the base of the perch, instead of fall- 

 ing into the jaws of the grizzly, he came plump on its head. 

 The sudden onslaught and shock terrified the bear so much 

 that it fled with the utmost precipitancy, nor did it halt 

 until it reached a place of safety. Bill felt so joyous at 

 this unexpected piece of good fortune that he commenced 

 dancing vigorously, and, after doing several double-shuffles 

 and a breakdown, he picked up his rifle and returned to 

 camp, highly elated with his adventure. He told his com- 

 rades the story, but they would not believe it until they 

 saw the broken tree and the bear-tracks. They, of course, 

 told it to others, and Bill received his name. When a lit- 

 tle merry he would boast good-hurnoredly that he was the 

 only man in the Territory that had defeated a grizzly with 

 his feet alone, and would defy anybody else to accomplish 

 the same feat. 



The Earl of Southesk relates a somewhat similar inci- 

 dent of two Indians who were treed by a grizzly in British 

 America. The tree in which they took refuge was a mere 



