136 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



and blood, and so thought my new native, who had just 

 arrived on the scene, and now rushed past me right up to the 

 bear. He was so wildly excited that I could not stop him, 

 and, standing between me and the bear, he placed his hand on 

 its back. I never saw a man jump so high from a standing 

 position as he did when the bear gave vent to an awful 

 noise, something between a roar and a grunt, and raised 

 himself to a sitting position. He was too far gone to stand 

 up, but the native, on reaching tey^'a fir77ia again, threw the 

 muzzle of his rifle against the bear's side, fired it, and bolted, 

 much to the amusement of Nicolai and myself, who stood 

 about five yards away waiting for further developments. This 

 was the final act of the drama, and I soon got the men to work 

 on the skin. The bear was a large male, some three or four 

 inches shorter in length than my record specimen. He was, 

 however, such an animal as any man would have talked about 

 for years had he killed it anywhere else in America save 

 Alaska. I was most curious to see the results of my two 

 shots, and on cutting open the beast found that the first 

 bullet had missed the heart by barely an inch, and expanding 

 had inflicted an awful wound internally. The second bullet 

 had entered just below the right eye, smashing the cheek- 

 bone. It had split the lower part of the skull and exposed 

 the brain. After expanding, it had sufficient force to smash 

 away four inches of cheek-bone on the left side of the head, and 

 yet, with these two frightful wounds, the bear had managed 

 to get on his forelegs a second time and frighten one of my 

 natives nearly to death. 



I returned to camp well satisfied with my first experience 

 of the river. A large bear killed two hours after pitching 

 camp, and that within 250 yards of my tent, is a bag that one 

 cannot make everywhere. 



