98 BEAR STORIES 



considered the safest with the old style gun or 

 rifle, and a front shot was never taken unless by a 

 tyro. Many a bear has been lost that way. Now- 

 adays, however, the penetration of a rifle bullet 

 is so great that it does not much matter what end 

 is shot at. The lead is bound to reach the other if 

 the line is good. The head of a bear facing you 

 looks pretty big on account of its peculiar shape, 

 but the brain pan is naturally very small, that of 

 a large black bear being only three inches in 

 width and length. 



One of the finest black bears I ever secured was 

 killed with a common shot gun, loaded with A 

 shot. It was early in May, and I was out duck 

 shooting. I had gone down about four miles 

 along the cliffs towards Pointe des Monts. These 

 cliffs are very steep, covered here and there with 

 patches of stunted spruce. In the nine miles 

 that cover the distance between Godbout and 

 Point des Monts, there are only three small coves 

 where there is any beach, everywhere else the rock 

 comes sheer down to the water. I was just oppo- 

 site one of these places, busy with a flock of 

 scooters, the female of which I had brought down 

 and the males continued circling around, keep- 

 ing me loading as fast as I could, for it was in the 

 muzzle-loading days. I suppose I had fired 

 about a dozen shots in quick succession, when 

 chancing to look shorewards I saw a bear going 

 along en the beach. I was only about a hundred 



