100 BEAR STORIES 



his pace did not so far appear to have slackened. 

 A few yards further I found he had stopped, and 

 then I knew he was very sick, but there was no 

 trace of blood. Continuing, about eighty yards 

 from where he had entered, I found him on his 

 side, dead. I broke a dead tree and poked him 

 in the ribs, keeping my gun close by, but there 

 was no sham about it. Two pellets only had 

 hit him, one in the haunch, a mere scratch, and 

 the other between the ribs behind the shoulder 

 joint, penetrating to the heart. The shot hole 

 was so small that only a few drops of blood es- 

 caped, all the bleeding being internally, which, 

 I think, caused quicker death. 



Our Montagnais Indians claim that the black 

 bear, previous to entering his den for tha winter, 

 will swallow a cone of the pine tree, or a small 

 smooth stone. They assert that the bear does this 

 to keep his bowels in order, and that as it is eva- 

 cuated, it is re-swallowed and so on during the 

 whole winter. I first heard of this from the old 

 "Godbout" Chief, who claimed he had himself 

 found the cone in the intestines of bears he had 

 killed in their dens. Subsequently many others 

 have told me the same thing. Personally, I never 

 had the chance to verify this statement, as I have 

 only killed one bear in its winter den and that 

 was previous to my hearing the story. The In- 

 dians also believe that if a bear is not killed in 

 its den, but hauled out and killed at some dis- 



