THIRTT YEARS A HUNTER. 79 



bullet broke his neck bone. He fell back, slid down 

 the hole, gave a heavy plunge, and all was silent. 

 Our next object was to bring our booty out to the 

 surface. None of us wished to enter the den, yet 

 we were not willing to leave it there. We finally 

 concluded to decide it by drawing cuts, and the 

 longest two were drawn by Fleeharty and myself. 

 We drew again, to decide which should take the 

 lead, and the lot fell upon Fleeharty. A rope was 

 placed around his waist, and taking a torch in his 

 hand, he started and I followed, leaving orders 

 with those above not to raise the rope until I called. 

 After descending obliquely about thirty feet, we 

 arrived at a precipice of about three feet, at the 

 bottom of which lay the bear on its back. The fears 

 of Fleeharty magnified into a live bear each foot of 

 the dead one, as it lav in the flickering: light of his 

 torch, and, thinking he had at least four bears to 

 encounter, he screamed, "Pull me np!" I quieted 

 him, and taking the torch from his hands, and peer- 

 ing down into the hole, I discovered the cause of 

 Fleeharty's alarm. I told him what I saw, and 

 requested him to proceed, but he could not muster 

 courage enough to descend the precipice, and I 

 pushed him off, following myself. As he struck the 

 bottom, the torch fell from his hands, and he set 

 up a scream of, "Murder! Murder!" "Pull me 

 up ! " u The bears are after me ! " I picked up the 

 torch and showed him that all his panic was caused 

 by one dead bear. We then commenced exploring 

 the cave, and found it to be quite a curiosity. The 



