BEAR HUNTING. 271 



foot in depth, its clear cold waters glancing like crystal ovor lis 

 pebbly bed. On three sides it was hemmed m by steep banks, 

 su densely set with the evergreen junipers, mterlaced and 

 matted with cat-briers and other creeping plants, that a small 

 dog could not, without a struggle, have forced its way through 

 tlie close thicket. On the fourth side, fronting the opening of 

 the rift by which the waters found their egress, tliere st(X)d a 

 tall, Hat face of granite rock, completely blocking up the glen, 

 perfectly smooth and slippery, until it reached the height of 

 forty feet, when it became uneven, and broke into many craggy 

 steps and seams, from one of which shot out the broad stem and 

 gnarled branches of an aged oak, overshadowing, with its 

 grateful umbrage, the sequestered source of that wild mountain 

 spring. The small cascade, gushing from an aperture midway 

 tlie height of the tall cliff, leaped, in a single glittering thread, 

 scarcely a foot broad, and but an inch or two in volume, into 

 the little pool which it had worn out for its own reception in the 

 hard stone at the bottom. Immediately behind this natural 

 fountain, which, in its free leap, formed an arch of several feet 

 in diameter, might be seen a small and craggy aperture, but 

 little larger than the entrance of a common well, situate close 

 to the rock's base, descending in a directi(jn nearly perpendi- 

 cular, for several feet, as might be easily discovered from with- 

 out. 



" There, Frank," cried Harry, as he pointed to the cave — 

 " there is the scene of my Bear story ; and here, as I told you, is 

 the sweetest nook, and freshest spring, you ever saw or tasted 1" 



" For the sight," replied I, " I confess. As to the taste, 1 

 will speak more presently." While I replied, I was fengaged 

 in producing from my pocket our slight stores of pilot biscuit, 

 salt, and hard-boiled eggs, whereunto Harry contributed his 

 quota in the shape of a small piece of cold salt pork, and — tell 

 it not in Gatli — two or three young, green-topped, summer 

 O7uons. Two modest-sized di'am bottles, duly supplied with old 

 Farintosh, and a dozen or t\\o of right Manilla cheroots, ar- 

 ranged in tempting order, ijeside the brimming basin of the 



