104 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



soon went into a dense grove of young spruce, 

 and as the hunter reached the edge it charged 

 fiercely out. He fired one hasty shot, evi- 

 dently wounding the animal, but not seriously 

 enough to stop or cripple it ; and as his two 

 companions ran forward they saw the bear 

 seize him with its wide-spread jaws, forcing 

 him to the ground. They shouted and fired, 

 and the beast abandoned the fallen man on the 

 instant and sullenly retreated into the spruce 

 thicket, whither they dared not follow it. 

 Their friend was at his last gasp ; for the 

 whole side of the chest had been crushed in 

 by the one bite, the lungs showing between 

 the rent ribs. 



Very often, however, a bear does not kill a 

 man by one bite, but after throwing him lies on 

 him, biting him to death. Usually, if no assis- 

 tance is at hand, such a man is doomed ; al- 

 though if he pretends to be dead, and has the 

 nerve to lie quiet under very rough treatment, 

 it is just possible that the bear may leave him 

 alive.perhaps after half burying what it believes 

 to be the body. In a very few exceptional in- 

 stances men of extraordinary prowess with the 

 knife have succeeded in beating off a bear, and 

 even in mortally wounding it, but in most cases 

 a single-handed struggle, at close quarters, 

 with a grisly bent on mischief, means death. 



Occasionally the bear, although vicious, is 

 also frightened, and passes on after giving one 

 or two bites ; and frequently a man who is 

 knocked down is rescued by his friends before 

 he is killed, the big beast mayhap using his 



