40 THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



was an old experienced French trapper of the party, who, 

 judging from the size of the foot, set down the weight of the 

 bear at fifteen hundred pounds, which, he said they frequently 

 over run, he himself, as well as Colonel Fremont's exploring 

 party, having killed several that came to two thousand pounds. 

 He advised me, should I again be pursued by a bear, and 

 have no other means of escape, to ascend a small-girthed tree, 

 which they cannot get up, for, not having any central joint 

 in the fore-legs, they cannot climb any with a branchless stem 

 that does not fully fill their embrace ; and in the event of 

 not being able to accomplish the ascent before my pursuer 

 over took me, to place my back against it, when, if it and I 

 did not constitute a bulk capable of filling his hug, I might 

 have time to rip out his entrails before he could kill me, 

 being in a most favorable posture for the operation. They 

 do not generally use their mouth in the destruction of their 

 victims, but, hugging them closely, lift one of the hind feet, 

 which are armed with tremendous claws, and tear out the bowls. 

 The Frenchman's advice reads rationally enough, and is a fea- 

 sible theory on the art of evading unbearable compression ; but, 

 unfortunately, in the haunts of that animal those slim juve- 

 nile saplings are rarely met with, and a person closely con- 

 fronted with such a grisly vis-a-vis is not exactly in a tone 

 of nerve for surgical operations. 



