74 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



charged very determinedly, taking two more bullets with- 

 out flinching. I just escaped the charge by jumping to 

 one side, and he died almost immediately after striking at 

 me as he rushed by. This bear charged with his mouth 

 open, but made very little noise after the growl or roar 

 with which he greeted my second bullet. I mention the 

 fact of his having kept his mouth open, because one or two 

 of my friends who have been charged have informed me 

 that in their cases they particularly noticed that the bear 

 charged with his mouth shut. Perhaps the fact that my 

 bear was shot through the lungs may account for the dif- 

 ference, or it may simply be another example of indi- 

 vidual variation. 



On another occasion, in a windfall, I got up within 

 eight or ten feet of a grizzly, which simply bolted off, pay- 

 ing no heed to a hurried shot which I delivered as I 

 poised unsteadily on the swaying top of an overthrown 

 dead pine. On yet another occasion, when I roused a big 

 bear from his sleep, he at the first moment seemed to pay 

 little or no heed to me, and then turned toward me in a 

 leisurely way, the only sign of hostility he betrayed being 

 to ruffle up the hair on his shoulders and the back of his 

 neck. I hit him square between the eyes, and he dropped 

 like a pole-axed steer. 



On another occasion I got up quite close to and mor- 

 tally wounded a bear, which ran off without uttering a 

 sound until it fell dead; but another of these grizzlies, 

 which I shot from ambush, kept squalling and yelling 

 every time I hit him, making a great rumpus. On one 

 occasion one of my cow hands and myself were able to 



