FOREST LIFE, 123 



shot, but were astoiiislied, on arriving at the place where we left 

 him, to find that he, too, had made his escape. Tracking him 

 by a trail of blood which appeared to spirt out at every leap he 

 made, we soon came up with him, and fired again. The ball 

 hit, but only to enrage him the more. Five additional bullets 

 were lodged in his perforated body, now making in all nine. 

 Having but one shot more, we desired to make it count eflect- 

 ively ; so, taking the gun, I approached very near upon one side, 

 and fired at his head. The ball passed directly into one eye and 

 out at the other, thus rendering him completely blind. The last 

 shot caused him to jump and plunge tremendously. He now be- 

 came furious, and, guided by the sound of our footsteps, would 

 dart at us like a catamount whenever we approached him. "We 

 had no ax to strike him down, or to cut clubs with which to dis- 

 patch him. We were at a stand what to do. We tried first to 

 entangle him in the deep snow by approaching him, and thus in- 

 duce him to spring out of the beaten into the untrodden snow ; but 

 the moment he found himself out, he would back directly into 

 the beaten path again. 



" Our feelings became very uncomfortable, and now, from pity, 

 we desired to put an end to his sufferings. To see his noble strug- 

 gle for life, with nine bullets in him, and blind, inspired a pain- 

 ful regard toward him. What to do we knew not. It was really 

 unsafe to approach him so as to cut his throat. We could neither 

 entangle him in the snow, nor bring him down with the small 

 sticks we had cut with our jack-knives. At length we hit upon 

 the following expedient : obtaining a long stift' pole, one end of 

 it was gently placed against his side. We found he leaned 

 against it, and the harder we pushed the more he opposed. 

 Uniting our strength, -we pressed it as powerfully as we were 

 capable ; he resisted with equal strength. While thus pressing, 

 we suddenly gave way, when he fell flat upon his side. Before 

 he had time to recover, we sprang upon him, and with a knife 



