DEATH OF THE BEAR. 359 



wounds. Be that as it may, he continued to retreat, and 

 was quickly lost to view amongst the trees. 



When reloaded, the chase was renewed with fresh vigour, 

 and shortly afterwards we again sighted the bear, looking as 

 he always does when wading through deep snow, and when 

 seen from behind, much like a huge ambulatory feather- 

 bed. This time we were close upon the beast, and I forth- 

 with saluted him, not only with my own two barrels, but 

 with Elg's rifle, which he handed to me the instant that 

 my gun was discharged. On receiving my fire, which, 

 from the short distance, ought to have been deadly, he 

 turned with a savage growl, and would doubtless have 

 charged, had not wounds, fatigue, and the depth of the 

 snow paralyzed his movements. Fortunately for us, per- 

 haps, he was satisfied with making this demonstration, 

 and before we were reloaded, had again plunged into the 

 brake. 



From this time forward the bear confined himself, if 

 possible, to still more untraversable ground, and to denser 

 cover than before, so that our progress was somewhat slow. 

 Nevertheless, had the dogs been able to close with the beast 

 (in which case their challenges would have enabled us to 

 make many a short cut), we should probably have soon 

 been up with him ; but the depth and looseness of the snow 

 impeded their movements even more than those of the bear, 

 so that they were commonly far in the rear, and consequently 

 utterly useless to us. 



At length, however, we came up with him in a thicket ; 

 and when at some thirty paces' distance, and crossing us, a 

 bullet that I put through his heart brought him stone-dead 

 to the ground. 



