BEAR HUNTING. 179 



relied Manton, with two bullets in each barrel, was his 

 favourite weapon, and only in one instance out of the 

 numerous bears that gentleman has killed has he been seri- 

 ously mauled. He told me himself that he did not con- 

 sider a revolver would be the slightest use against the charge 

 of a wounded bear. Blocked in as a man is with snow, and 

 his pockets perhaps full, in nine cases out of ten, he could 

 never get it ready in time, nor if he did, would a small re- 

 volver bullet have the least effect in stopping the charge of a 

 bear. The only chance appears to be to cast yourself down, 

 and "take your punishment like a man," without a groan 

 (for the better you " play possum," the better the bear will 

 behave to you), and leave the rest to Providence. It does 

 not appear, as we all fancy at home, that the bear always 

 advances on his hind legs to hug you in his forepaws. The 

 bear which attacked Mr. Lloyd charged him " end on end," 

 and knocked him head over heels in a moment. As Mr. 

 Lloyd describes it, " in a second or two he was upon me, on 

 all fours, like a dog, and, in spite of a slight blow that I 

 gave him on the, head with the muzzle of my gun, for I had 

 no time to apply the butt, he at once laid me prostrate/ 5 



The scene is depicted in an excellent tinted engraving 

 in Lloyd's fc Scandinavian Adventures ;" and as it is not 

 every one who has it in his power to relate such an adven- 

 ture as this, I make no apology for borrowing the follow- 

 ing very graphic description from the pages of the same 

 book : 



" Had not the beast been so very near me," says Mr. 

 Lloyd, fc when I fired my second barrel, it is probable, from 

 his wounded state, I might have got out of his way, but flight 

 on my part, from his near proximity, was then too late, and 

 once in his clutches and (now that my gun was discharged) 

 totally unarmed, the only resource left me was to turn my 

 face to the snow, that my features might not be mutilated, 

 and to lie motionless, it being a generally received opinion 

 in Scandinavia that if the bear supposes his victim to be 

 dead, he the sooner desists from his assault. In my case, 

 however, although I played the defunct as well as I was able, 



