1 68 CAMP-FIRES IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES 



solely a matter of technical knowledge and artistic skill! 

 My best picture is reproduced herewith. 



We made a careful autopsy of the bear, and were 

 able to determine to a certainty the details of our shoot- 

 ing, and its results. By good luck, my first shot went 

 true to the mark aimed for, the heart region, immedi- 

 ately behind the foreleg. But it did not go through the 

 heart. The animal was quartering to me, sufficiently 

 that my ball passed close behind the heart, tore the lungs 

 and liver to bits, and passed out at the middle of the 

 right side, low down. We thrust a small stick through, 

 in the track of the ball, and left it there. 



Charlie Smith fired as the bear was turning to the 

 right. His bullet entered the left thigh, tore a great hole 

 through the flesh between the skin and the femur, passed 

 through the entrails, and lodged against the skin of the 

 right side, well back. His bullets were of a larger 

 calibre than mine, and this one was fully identified. 

 We marked the course of that bullet, also, with a stick. 

 After receiving those two bullets, the bear ran as if un- 

 harmed for about a hundred yards, when my third shot 

 broke its neck, and brought it down in a heap, too dead 

 to struggle. It was not touched by any other bullets 

 than the three described. The distance, as nearly as we 

 could estimate, was one hundred and fifty yards, good 

 measure. 



My first shot was of course absolutely fatal, and had 

 I but known it, I need not have fired again. It was 

 marvellous that the animal did not fall at the first fire, 

 and equally so that with its lungs torn to pieces, it was 



