Moose 
the shoulder of the bear, and hit him low down 
in the hind quarter—a performance which fairly 
disgusted me, as it was the easiest of shots. I 
had never used these sights before, and made 
up my mind there and then never to do so 
again. 
On arrival at camp I puzzled my brains to 
think out a plan by which I could use my own 
trusty rifle. Had I thought of it, I might have 
known that both hammers were cocked, and 
would have fired the cartridges, but I did not 
then think of it, nor did I do so until in the 
evening it suddenly struck me that I might cock 
the tumblers again by pressing the cocking-rods 
against a rock or hard piece of wood. I there- 
fore pulled both triggers, hitting the strikers 
against a piece of wood held against them, to 
avoid injury, and hunting up a rock in the ground, 
with a steady push, found that with care I could 
cock the rifle in this way. Next morning, there- 
fore, I started off with Hunter to search for a 
moose, on whose carcass I hoped to try the ex- 
periment of shooting without the fore end. We 
went towards the mountain, passing through 
the belt of black alder that marked the timber 
line. Here, a few hundred yards from the edge 
of the timber, we sat down. The country was 
spread out before us like a map, the wooded 
part in which the camp was situated being in a 
gentle incline. With my glass I could survey a 
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