58 THE PINE-TREE, OR 



slight impression. Before a second could be repeated, the bear 

 clambered into the boat ; he instantly grappled the man who 

 struck him, firmly setting his teeth in the man's thigh ; then set- 

 tling back upon his haunches, he raised his victim in the air, and 

 shook him as a dog would a wood-chuck. The man at the helm 

 stood for a moment in amazement, without knowing how to act, 

 and fearing that the bear might spring overboard and drown his 

 companion ; but, recollecting the effect of a blow upon the end of 

 a bear's snout, he struck him with a short setting-pole. The 

 bear dropped his victim into the bottom of the boat, sallied and 

 fell overboard, and swam again for the shore. The man bled 

 freely from the bite, and as the wound proved too serious to al- 

 low a renewal of the encounter, they made for the shore. Med- 

 ical aid was procured as soon as possible, and in the course of 

 six weeks the man recovered from the effects of the bite. But 

 one thing saved them from being upset ; the water proved suffi- 

 ciently shoal to admit of the bear's getting bottom, from which 

 he sprang into the boat. Had the water been deep, the boat 

 must inevitably have been upset, in which case the consequen- 

 ces might have been more serious. 



It was on one of these haying occasions that a more startling 

 but harmless encounter with the elements was experienced. One 

 afternoon, about two o'clock, while several men were making their 

 way up a small stream on a branch of the Penobscot, their atten- 

 tion was suddenly arrested by a sound which resembled distant 

 thunder. Each moment the noise grew more distinct, accom- 

 panied with a tremulous motion of the earth. Still nearer and 

 yet nearer it approached, with a rushing sound, intermingled with 

 loud reports. Between our boatmen and the forest at the south- 

 west spread an area of meadow land. Looking in this direction, 

 a dense column, rising high in the heavens, was seen whirling in 

 the distance, and approaching with incredible velocity. They 

 barely effected a landing when it came upon them. In an in- 



