EEAR HUNTING. 



283 



If the first shot he a miss, or inflict only a superficial wound, the 

 dogs, which have been baying him in a wary semicircle, the 

 ooldest now dashing in and giving him a nip, and instantly, if so 

 fortunate as to escape his hug or fatal blow, retreating to a 

 secure distance, break in upon him with a simultaneous crash of 

 tongues; but knocking them over right and left, he fights his 

 way clear through and again onward, onward through the 

 densest canes crackling like straws or stubble before his headlong 

 impetus, with the pack again yelling at his heels, till his speed 

 slackens, his wind fails him, he again turns to the combat, and 

 is at length brought dowTi by a better aimed and deadlier 

 bullet. 



The head of a Bear never should be aimed at; in the first 

 place, because the animal, when at bay, keeps it constantly in 

 motion, so that it offers anything but an easy mark ; in the 

 second, that it is so hard, and of a form so singularly rounded, 

 that unless the ball strike it at right angles, on a pei-pendicular 

 line, it is almost sure to glance off" at a tangent, without inflict- 

 ing a wound. 



The best places at which to aim are, the centre of the breast 

 if the Bear be coming directly at you ; if he be facing you, erect 

 on his hind quarters, a little to the left, and low down on the 

 breast toward the belly ; if he be crossing you, behind the 

 shoulder, about the arch of the ribs. In any one of these places, 

 an ounce, or even a half-ounce bullet — I should be loath to shoot 

 at a Bear with anything smaller — will find the heart, and do 

 the business, without giving the trouble of a second shot. 



If it be necessary to take to the knife, never strike, for the Bear 

 is sure to parry the blow, but always thrust, which if it take 

 effect, inflicts a far more certain and deadly wound ; and in 

 thrusting, keep the edge of your blade, which should be very 

 keen and heavy, upward and outward, if you are facing the 

 animal ; and forward, if you are standing against his broadside. 

 By this means his paw, in parrying, will meet the edge of the 

 knife, which will probably disable him. But the better way 

 with a wounded Bear, if your dogs are in such sufficient force, 



