196 BIG GAME FIELDS 



shooting from a sitting position, mostly from 

 lack of time to rise. Now I was on my feet and 

 had swung my gun at right angles, where, at 

 about the same distance away as the black bear, I 

 could see the fore part of a brown bear. I re- 

 member as I glanced along the sights, I thought 

 to myself, "Ah, I am going to get a grizzly, 

 or at least one of us is going to get the other." 

 It seemed so intrusive and out of place to rend 

 the silence of such a well-chosen retreat with 

 the thundering of a gun; but this is exactly what 

 I did, the bear presenting a very similar shot to 

 the black one. I shot too low in the neck, the 

 shoulders again being concealed. At the crack 

 of the rifle this bear crumpled as did the other, 

 only to rise again just as quickly, and this time 

 he reared up and made a vicious stroke with one 

 paw at a nearby bush, breaking off the branches, 

 which were about the size of a broom handle, like 

 so many little toothpicks. At this moment he 

 made the woods fairly ring with his bawling. I 

 have never heard a bear, before or since, make 

 so much noise. Bears always look larger when 

 they stand up, and a little nearer than they really 

 are So as he presented a fine heart shot I thought 

 I would lose no time. My second shot passed 

 through the top of the heart, cutting some of the 



