THIRTY YEARS A HUNTER. 137 



frightened him still more, and he sprang across the 

 canoe, giving Clark a blow between the eyes, with 

 its hind feet, which knocked him prostrate. I asked 

 aim if he was hurt, and he replied that he was 

 nearly killed. I pushed ashore as soon as possible, 

 and took him out of the canoe. His face was bathed 

 in blood, and presented a ghastly appearance. Upon 

 washing away the blood I discovered that he was 

 not as badly injured as I had feared. There was a 

 severe contusion in the spot where he was struck, 

 but the skin was not broken, and the blood had 

 dropped from the wounded deer. I then went after 

 the deer, which I found lying down, badly wounded, 

 but not dead. I finished it by a ball through; the 

 head, and dragged it to the canoe. We floated down 

 a mile, when we saw a buck and doe eating moss. 

 Clark fired, killing the buck, and the doe ran ashore, 

 when, becoming frightened at her shadow, she 

 leaped back toward the canoe. As she raised to 

 spring over, I hit her on the nose with a paddle, and 

 she fell back into the canoe, when I cut her throat. 

 We then floated down, picked up our buck, and 

 proceeded homeward with three deer, one of which 

 had not cost us even a shot. 



About the first of the next December, I went on a 

 bear- hunt, accompanied by a man named Hamlin. 

 We soon treed and killed a large bear, which we 

 dressed and hung up. In a short time we met two 

 more, one of which we killed. We returned home, 

 and the next morning started with a horse to convey 

 home our bears, and before we reached thorn we 

 • : V2 



