BEAR STORIES 99 



yards or so out, but he had the lead on me. The 

 shots I had fired had apparently not frightened 

 him at all. I had a few loads of A shot in one of 

 the compartments of my shot pouch, which I al- 

 ways carried when out ducking in case of meeting 

 seals. One barrel of my gun was loaded with No. 

 four shot, which I had no time to extract, so I 

 loaded only the one barrel with A. shot. Hastily 

 grabbing my paddle I urged my canoe forward 

 with all my strength. Although he never ap- 

 peared to notice me, this quiet jog of his took him 

 along about as fast as I could paddle, and I had 

 gained very little on him. I was making a des- 

 perate effort to shorten the distance, because he 

 was nearing the end of the cove where he was 

 certain to enter the woods as he could not get 

 around the steep rock. Sure enough he did as I 

 had expected. I was then about seventy yards 

 from him, and as I knew that this was my only 

 chance for a shot I fired just as he entered the 

 scrub with his side towards me. I fancied by the 

 start he made that I had hit him, but I supposed 

 only lightly. However, I decided to go and see, 

 and, hauling up my canoe and reloading, this 

 time both barrels with the large shot, I started 

 in. Just where I had struck him I found some hair 

 cut by the shot. There was still in the woods 

 patches of snow here and there, which made the 

 tracking easy, and I had not gone twenty yards 

 before I found blood, very little, however, and 



