ON THE PRAIRIE 227 



about as quickly as it got sight of us. The 

 last one we got was an old male, which was 

 feeding on an elk carcass. We crept up to 

 within about sixty feet, and as Merrifield had 

 not yet killed a grizzly purely to his 

 gun, and I had killed three, I told him to take 

 the shot. He at once whispered gleefully: 

 " I'll break his leg, and well see what 

 do ! " Having no ambition to be a partici- 

 pator in the antics of a three-legged bear, I 

 hastily interposed a most emphatic veto ; and 

 with a rather injured air he fired, the bul- 

 let going through the neck just back of the 

 head. The bear fell to the shot, and could 

 not get up from the ground, dying in a few 

 minutes; but first he seized his left wrist in 

 his teeth and bit clean through it, completely 

 separating the bones of the paw and arm. 

 Although a smaller bear than the big one 

 I first shot, he would probably have proved 

 a much more ugly foe, for he was less un- 

 ly, and had much longer and sharper 

 teeth and claws. 1 think that if my com- 

 panion had merely broken the beast's leg 



