220 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



was that alarmed them, I fired my two barrels into 

 the midst of the herd and hit one of the largest of 

 them. My men followed my example, but with no 

 result. When lo, the butt of my gun had scarcely 

 quitted my shoulder before an enormous grizzly bear 

 issued forth from the brushwood and advanced 

 slowly towards us. He was not a hundred yards 

 off, and there was no time to reload. I was seized, 

 I must confess, with such terror, that for a few 

 seconds I stood stock still, not knowing what to do ; 

 but I soon saw that we had only one way out of the 

 position. When the Eed Skins attack the grizzly 

 bear in a body, they have a way of sitting down quite 

 close to each other, waiting for the enemy's attack. 

 The brute chooses one of them to attack and rushes 

 on. Sometimes the victim is killed at the first 

 blow, but more frequently he gets off with a wound. 

 The others throw themselves at once upon the 

 monster, and bury their knives deeply in the most 

 vital parts. In this wa}', they will sometimes van- 

 quish a grizzly bear without any of their number 

 being very seriously injured. 



" This was the only chance we had, so I deter- 

 mined that we should all sit down close to each 

 other, hoping that the brute would hesitate long 

 enough to give us the opportunity of reloading. 

 ' Sit down ; sit down,' I cried, kneeling on the 

 ground and beginning to reload, but, on look- 

 ing round quickly, I found that all my men had 



