32 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



boys." When lie luul become well acquainted with John 

 Barleycorn, he was always willing- to tell how he received his 

 soubriquet, and lie told his tale with such inimitable and 

 unctuous humour that an anchorite would laugh at it. Detailed 

 in a few words, it was, that while out " prospecting- " for gold 

 one day in the AVind River Mountains, he was suddenly 

 startled out of his wits by the muffled roar and the charge of 

 a grizzly bear. Not knowing what to do under the circum- 

 stances, he did what most men would do he fired at the 

 animal, then ran for it. As the bear was closing on him he 

 sought safety in the first tree he met, and that was a young 

 iir. Climbing up this with all the speed of terror, he was 

 comfortably seated on the strongest branch before his pursuer 

 reached the foot. The latter then commenced a regular siege 

 by placing its paws against the tree, looking savagely upward, 

 and growling spitefully at intervals. Bill, feeling safe, took 

 matters philosophically until he began to get hungry towards 

 evening, when he commenced hurling epithets at the besieger, 

 and told it in vigorous language that it was of mean descent, 

 and was anything but a " gentleman " of a bear. This having 

 no effect, he tried to hit it in the eye with cones; but this act 

 only increased its anger, and caused it to shake the tree 

 violently, as if it would like to shake him down. 



Having used up all the cones within his immediate reach, 

 Bill tried to get at some others, and this produced a catastrophe 

 he had not expected, for the bcugh on which he had been 

 sitting had been steadily giving way under his weight, and 

 when the pressure was removed from the strongest to one of 

 its weakest points by his movements, it gave way at once and 

 he went downwards with lightning speed. lie thought, of 

 course that it was all up with him, but when he reached the 

 base of the perch, instead of falling into the jaws of the grizzly 

 he came plump on its head. The sudden onslaught and shock 

 terrified the bear so much that it fled with the utmost preci- 

 pitancy, nor did it halt until it reached a place of safety. 

 Bill felt so joyous at this unexpected piece of good fortune 

 that he commenced dancing vigorously, and after doing several 

 double shuilles and a breakdown, he picked up his rifle and 



