230 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



view of them. By this time, too, he was at 

 about the same level as they, and detection 

 seemed certain. However, he threw himself 

 prone and tried to crawl to a position directly 

 above them. They had in the meanwhile either 

 seen, heard, or winded him, for they bunched 

 together and looked straight in his direc- 

 tion. 



As there was no cover, he opened fire. The 

 first shot broke one of the female's forelegs, 

 and she rolled over and over downhill and lay 

 with her legs in the air. Next moment, how- 

 ever, she was up again, and rushed uphill to 

 the cubs, roaring furiously. Another shot, 

 far back in the ribs behind the shoulder, rolled 

 her over again, and this time she went down- 

 hill quite fifty yards, until her further progress 

 was arrested by a little patch of brush. Think- 

 ing that she was dead, Dr. Longstaff now 

 turned his attention to one of the cubs and 

 rolled that over as well. Then, to his amaze- 

 ment, the old bear was up once more, racing 

 uphill and roaring more terribly than he ever 

 heard a tiger in like circumstances. He owns 

 to having been rather frightened of this seem- 

 ingly immortal bear, but managed to hold his 

 fire till she was within a hundred or a hundred 

 and fifty yards of where he lay. She seemed a 

 little uncertain of his exact whereabouts and 

 stood erect, swinging her sound foreleg and in 



