44 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



a retreat, and get out of the savage chasm to the gentle glade 

 and generous forest above. When I reached camp I did not 

 mention a word of what I had seen to anybody, but on 

 arriving at our destination I told it to the chief, but he 

 manifested no feeling whatsoever in the matter, and did not 

 even make a comment, although I was very careful not to use 

 the name of the brave, knowing how scrupulous they are 

 about referring to the dead. 



A comrade and myself killed a grizzly one day in AWoming 

 by running it down on horseback, but not until after we had 

 planted its body with bullets. "While riding towards a frontier 

 post we espied the bear pottering about a few cottomvoods that 

 <rrew on the bank of a small stream. On seeing it we dashed 



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forward, firing, and both found, when we got to within seventy 

 or eighty yards of it, that our bullets evidently went wide of 

 the mark, for instead of attempting to run away it raised 

 itself on its hind legs, as if it were willing to face all foes in 

 a sparring or wrestling match. The attitude was so gravely 

 ludicrous that I was forced to laugh at. it, but my companion, 

 who could sec nothing funny in it, thought he could sec a 

 good chance for a shot, and he availed himself of it by sending 

 a bullet somewhere into its body. This seemed to impress 

 upon it the idea that mere attitude was nothing, and that its 

 visitors were not pleasant creatures to know, so it concluded 

 that discretion was the better part of valour, and acting on this 

 idea it moved towards the open ground at a rate of speed that 

 surprised me. AVe started in pursuit, and kept delivering our 

 fire at its back and head, being afraid to range ourselves on 

 its sides for fear we might shoot each other. Finding this 

 mode ineffective, we concluded to rush past it, one at a time, 

 and shoot at it with our heavy revolvers, then wheel back 

 and give a return tire. I moved first, through the courtesy 

 of my companion, and delivered two shots in rapid succession 

 at its sides, hoping to cripple it, and wheeling back on the 

 opposite side, after running about a hundred yards ahead of it, 

 got in two more. These forced it to halt and growl terribly, 

 as if in pain. My companion did exactly as I had done, and 

 we repealed the movement until we had emptied our revolvers. 



