vii THE DEATH 203 



look of her, I took Celestin's gun, making him hold 

 the rifle ready, fired into her shoulder 5 yards off. 

 Instead of falling, the powerful brute bounded on to her 

 legs, and for a minute looked very nasty, but by the 

 time I had taken the rifle she began to get faint again, 

 and a bullet from it through the shoulders ended her 

 sufferings. I found Arthur had hit her (a wonderful 

 shot, at least 400 yards) in the point of the withers, 

 and the bullet had run round and was lying between 

 the skin and flesh on the top of the other shoulder 

 without entering the body, and Celestin had fired a 

 charge of buck-shot into her face, which had simply 

 bounded off the skull, some of them entering her chest. 

 My first ball had entered at the left shoulder and gone 

 slantingly across and broken two immense holes, out of 

 one of which protruded part of her liver, and out of the 

 other some broken bits of ribs. It was an awful wound, 

 and though she was dying fast, it was wonderful that 

 she lived as long as she did. She was a very fine 

 handsome bear, with a lovely coat in perfect order, and 

 giving very little milk (and not in cub again), which 

 puzzles me much. We skinned her on the spot, and 

 found beech mast and cotyledons of beech in her 

 stomach. The walk to the valley was stifling, but we 

 arrived at 4.30, and found Jack arranging the house, 

 and all getting on well. We dined outside, and enjoyed 

 the splendid view, after having stretched the skin on 

 the floor of the cabane. 



