BEAR HUNTING, 275 



tried dogs : four of the best the country could produce were 

 sent in, and a most demoniacal affray and hubbub followed with- 

 in the bowels of the earthfast rock ; but, in a little while, three 

 of our canine friends were glad enough to make their exit, man- 

 gled, and maimed, and bleeding ; more fortunate than their 

 companion, whose greater pluck had only earned for him a 

 harder and more mournful fate. We sent for fire- works ; and 

 kept up, for some three hours, such a din, and such a stench, as 

 might have scared the devil from his lair ; but bruin bore it all 

 with truly stoical endurance. Miners were summoned next ; 

 and we essayed to blast the granite, but it was all in vain, the 

 hardness of the stone defied our labors. Three days had passed 

 away, and we were now no nearer than at first — every means 

 had been tried, and every means found futile. Blank disap- 

 pointment sat on every face, when Michael Draw, Tom's bro- 

 ther, not merely volunteered, but could not be by any means 

 deterred from going down into the den, and shooting the brute 

 in its very hold. Dissuasion and remonstrance were in vain — 

 he was bent on it ! — and, at length Tom, who had been the most 

 resolved in opposition, exclaimed, ' If he will go, let him !' so 

 that decided the whole matter. 



" The cave, it seemed, had been explored already, and ita 

 localities were known to several of the party, but more particu- 

 larly to the bold volunteer who had insisted on this perilous 

 en erprise. The well-like aperture, which could alone be seen 

 from without, descended, widening gradually as it got farther 

 from the surface, for somewhat more than eight feet. At that 

 depth the fissure turned off at right angles, running nearly hori- 

 zontally, an arch of about three feet in height, and some two 

 yards in length, into a small and circular chamber, beyond which 

 there was no passage whether for man or beast, and in which it 

 was certain that the well-known and much detested Bear had 

 taken up his winter quarters. The plan, then, on which Michael 

 had resolved, was to descend into this cavity, with a rope se- 

 curely fastened under his arm-pits, provided with a sufficient 

 quantity of lights, and his good musket — to worm himself feet 



