EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION. 413 



to entering the Ring, both Elg and I had divested the guns 

 of their cases, and we were therefore quite prepared for 

 immediate action. In profound silence we commenced the 

 search, and threaded all the denser and more likely thickets ; 

 as also carefully examined every boulder, and the roots of 

 such prostrate pines as came in our way. But though we 

 were thus occupied for an hour or more, we neither came 

 across the bear himself, nor did we see any marks indicative 

 of his presence. 



All in a moment, however, w r hen at about fifteen paces to 

 the left of me, Elg whom I had directed to fire in the event 

 of his falling in with the beast discharged his gun, and 

 shouted loudly at the same time : " The bear ! the bear !" 

 But though I strained my eyes to the utmost, nothing 

 was to be seen in the thicket but a scathed and blackened 

 stump at some thirty to thirty-five paces in advance of 

 where I stood, and towards w r hich, fancying the beast might 

 be lying at its roots, I made up in double-quick time. 

 But on reaching the spot, neither the bear nor his bed 

 were visible ; and I presently found, to my great amusement, 

 that, whether owing to his sight being dimmed by age, 

 or to a fertile imagination, Elg had mistaken the aforesaid 

 stump for Bruin, and lodged a bullet in its very centre. 

 This discovery afforded us both much merriment, and I 

 for my part hardly desisted from laughing for the next 

 half-hour. 



The report of Elg's gun under ordinary circumstances 

 even had the distance been considerable would in all pro- 

 bability have alarmed the bear, and caused him to bolt forth- 

 with. But as we were still somewhat in the northern part 

 of the Ring, and as it was blowing a half-hurricane from the 



