CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 231 



a splendid rage. The next shot finished her, 

 and she rolled far downhill, not to rise again. 

 The wounded cub was meanwhile making the 

 echoes ring, and another shot finished that as 

 well. 



But all was not over, for the other cub now 

 came charging uphill, roaring with anger, and 

 not even stopped by a shot through one of its 

 forelegs, though making an even more terrific 

 noise, not of pain (Dr. Longstaff has had too 

 varied an experience of big game to make any 

 mistake on this point) but of rage, and evidently 

 meaning business if it could get at him. 

 This time he waited until it was topping a rise 

 only just below him, and killed it with a shot 

 through the head. 



The episode impressed him with the ferocity 

 displayed by the cubs. In the old bear, 

 who may have had similar encounters before, it 

 was hardly surprising, but in the cubs it was 

 certainly unexpected. As he remarks, the bears 

 were not in the least afraid of him, but he was 

 undeniably afraid of them. An unarmed friend, 

 who was standing on a point far above the scene 

 of the conflict, saw the bears and mistook them 

 at that distance for porcupines. He did not 

 see Dr. Longstaff, but heard the shots and 

 wondered why he was wasting his ammunition 

 on porcupines ! Then, though they were so 

 far away as to look the size of porcupines, he 



