BEAR HUNTING CRITICAL POSITION. 181 



grating over the bare skull was not that of a sharp blow, as 

 is often the case when a blow is inflicted, but rather, (though 

 very much more protracted) the craunch one feels during 

 the extraction of a tooth. 



' ' From certain circumstances I have reason to believe 

 the bear continued to maltreat me for nearly three minutes, 

 and as I perfectly retained my senses the whole time, my 

 feelings whilst in this horrible situation are beyond the 

 power of description. But at length the incessant attacks 

 of my gallant little dog drew the beast's attention from me, 

 and I had the satisfaction of seeing him retreat, though at a 

 very slow pace, into the adjoining thicket, where he was at 

 once lost to view. 



" Immediately after he had left me I arose, and applied 

 snow by the handful to my head to staunch the blood, which 

 was flowing from it in streams. I lost a very large quantity, 

 and the bear not a little, so that the snow all around the 

 scene of conflict was literally deluged with gore. 



{( From the wretched state of the snow, and the distance, 

 my comrades did not join me until a minute or two after 

 my antagonist had retreated, and when I was on my legs 

 bathing my wounds. Elg [his servant], whom I had called 

 twice by name at the instant the bear was about to close 

 with me, had no idea I was in jeopardy, but merely that I 

 required his aid in killing the beast. Under any circum- 

 stances it would have been impossible for him to have rescued 

 me, for at the time of the mishap he was considerably below, 

 on the hill- side, which was precipitous, and a dense brake, 

 moreover, intervened. When, therefore, he came to the 

 spot, and saw the blood on the snow, he, without noticing 

 the state I was in, looked about him and inquired for the 

 carcase of the bear, and was taken a good deal aback when he 

 found that in this instance it was the beast, and not myself, 

 that had proved the victor. 



" At first, from the pain of my wounds, and the weak- 

 ness consequent on loss of blood, which ran from my head 

 so as almost to blind me, I thought myself much more hurt 

 than I was in reality, and disabled for that day at least. So 



