BKAR HUNTING IN THE PYIIENE8. . 29 



nioa stood guard without. This extraordinary mode of disturbing the 

 bear's slumbers was adopted, and the sentry having promised by the 

 blessed Virgin to stand by his friend, the other prepared to enter the 

 cave. For a considerable distance the cavity was large enough to permit 

 of the daring hunter walking upright, but decreasing in height, he had to 

 grope his way on all fours. While proceeding in this manner, the bear, 

 roused by the slight noise which the hunters had made at the entrance 

 of his chamber, was heard approaching. To turn and run away was 

 hopeless; the bear was too near to permit of this being attempted; so 

 that to throw himself on his face, and take the chance of the animal's 

 passing over him, was the only hope of escape. Barras did so, and the 

 bear walked over him, without even saluting him with a growl. His 

 companion at the mouth of the cave did not get off so easily ; for 

 expecting that he would certainly have some warning of the approach of 

 the animal, he was not altogether prepared for the encounter when he 

 appeared, and ere he had time to lift his gun to his shoulder, he was 

 i'i.Kled in the deadly embrace of the giant brute. Within a few yards of 

 the cave, the precipice was several hundred feet in depth, and in the 

 struggle, both bear and man roll? J ever it together. Barras, eager to 

 aid his friend, followed the bear after it had passed over him, but reached 

 the mouth of the cave just as the bear and his comrade were disappearing 

 over the edge of the precipice. Horror-struck at the dreadful fate of his 

 friend, and without the slightest hope of saving him, Barras rushed 

 forward to decend the mountain side, and rescue, if possible, his mangled 

 body; when the first glance into the gorge below, revealed to him his 

 friend, dangling by his clothes among the brandies of a thick shrub, 

 which, growing out of a fissure in the precipice, had caught him in his 

 fall, while the bear, less fortunate, had descended to the bottom. To 

 release his friend from his precarious situation was no easy matter; but 

 by the aid of the long sashes which the mountaineers almost always 

 wear, he at last effected it, and drew him to the platform from which he 

 had been so rudely hurled. The bear had lacerated him severely; but 

 he was no sooner on his legs, than expressing his confidence that the 

 bear had been killed by the fall, he proposed descending to the foot of the 

 precipice, to ascertain the result. This, with much difficulty, they 

 effected, and to their great satisfaction as well as profit, found, among 

 the rocks below, the object of their search, in the last agonies of death. 

 Sure of their prize, they returned to the Eux Chaudes, the wounded man 

 greatly exhausted by loss of blood ; and Barras, returning next morning 

 to the field of battle, accompanied by a band of villagers, triumphantly 

 carried off the spoil. 



