DEATH OF THE BEAST. 3?9 



into a trot, and from the stream of blood that marked his 

 progress, that he was mortally wounded. Such indeed was 

 the fact ; for after proceeding two to three hundred paces, 

 he came to a stand still on a little morass. Here Elg, 

 who was not very far distant when I fired, and who was 

 directed to the spot hy the dogs which, from being 

 the pursued, had now become the pursuers found him 

 rocking to and fro in a dying state, and shot him through 

 the head. 



As the shades of evening had now set in, and we were 

 somewhat exhausted from severe toil, and as besides the dis- 

 tance to the nearest house was very considerable, it is likely 

 we should have bivouaced in the forest had our attendant 

 been at hand with the eatables and the axe. But having 

 nothing excepting bear's flesh on which to regale, and unable 

 with knives alone to get up a sufficiently good fire to 

 protect us from cold throughout a long winter's night, it 

 was thought best to face at once for the nearest hamlet on 

 the river Clara. 



After placing the bear just shot en cache, we therefore 

 set forward ; and now that frost had again set in, and the 

 snow in consequence was in a more favourable state for the 

 Skidor, our pace was a pretty fair one. 



Whilst wending our way homewards, I might well have 

 exclaimed with the poet : " The beauty of the moonlit 

 scene with its broad lights and shadows, and the solemn 

 effects of silence and solitude, and night, in these in- 

 terminable forests, made me halt in my advance, and 

 gaze up into the depths, and feel the mightiness of the 



universe." 



