ADVENTURES IN THE KENAI 261 



of them would have been very badly mauled, if not 

 killed. 



In conjunction with this, it might be of interest to 

 relate the experience of a rancher named Peterson, about 

 three weeks before this. Peterson Hved within three 

 miles of the village of Seward and just at dusk was going 

 from his ranch to that of a neighbor when he was sud- 

 denly and unexpectedly attacked by a very large brown 

 bear. Elting saw Peterson in the hospital on his return 

 to Seward and secured from him a statement of his expe- 

 rience. He said that when he was attacked he realized 

 that he must, if possible, keep the bear away from his 

 abdomen, and so he made every effort to he fiat on his 

 stomach. Fortunately he had on several shirts as well 

 as a leather coat. The bear mauled him frightfully and 

 left him apparently for dead. Peterson started to get 

 away and the bear returned and mauled him a second 

 time and again left him for dead. Again Peterson 

 endeavored to get away before the bear was sufficiently 

 far off and the bear again returned and gave him another 

 mauling. As a result of these three performances, he 

 was very badly mutilated. He stated that the bear 

 endeavored to crush his skull, for she kept trying to get 

 his head in her mouth, but could not open the jaws quite 

 wide enough to get sufficient purchase to crush the 

 skull. The result of this was that the teeth kept slipping 

 continually on the skull and had torn the scalp in every 

 conceivable direction. With either the teeth or a claw 

 she took off the entire left ear and mastoid process, and 

 in the same manner cut all of the muscles in the back of 

 the neck which extend from the skull to the shoulder. 

 Luckily none of the fangs penetrated the intestines or 

 the lungs, but the muscles about the chest, the loins and 



