ADVENTURE WITH A BEAR. 301 



and was now doing his best across the bottom, presenting such 

 a comic spectacle that I almost tumbled off the pony from 

 laughing. His hat had come off and his long hair was blowing 

 out behind, while his thin legs were flying about round the 

 pony's sides, and his equally long arms were flourishing his rifle, 

 with which he was beating the pony ; at the same time he was 

 yelling at the animal, and seemed to be trying to climb on to 

 its neck. On the opposite side of the bottom was a steep rise 

 of ten or twelve feet, up which we went, and the bear stopped 

 at the bottom and then trotted back to the willows. I jumped 

 off and managed to hit it behind as it entered them, my pony 

 backing quickly and preventing my taking any aim. Fishel 

 in the meantime had galloped on till he had reached the top 

 of a ridge about four hundred yards away, and here he remained 

 and opened fire upon the thicket, being much more likely to 

 hit me than the bear. 



Just as I remounted, the Colonel appeared on the opposite 

 side of the swamp. He had lost his bear in a thicket, and 

 hearing our shots had come to see what we were doing. On 

 being told the state of affairs, he at once rode into the bushes, 

 when the bear charged him, and was so close to his pony's 

 tail when he came out that I thought for a moment he had 

 caught him. On reaching the open the bear gave up the chase 

 and returned to the bushes. I, however, got another ball into 

 him, which hit him in the chest, but too much on one side, as 

 it only lamed him. I then drew him out by throwing in 

 stones, when the Colonel hit him again behind, after which he 

 refused to come out again any more. Meanwhile it had 

 begun snowing again, and as the bushes were becoming 

 weighed down by the snow neither of us liked to go in on 



