246 THE TEEKTBLE. 



the trapper, who was just getting up ; but before he had 

 well drawn his long knife, the bear's claws were on his 

 left arm and shoulder. His right arm he could still move 

 freely, and he inflicted stab after stab in the neck of his 

 fierce enemy, which did not on that account relax her 

 gripe, but tried to catch the knife with her teeth. At 

 every movement he made, she seemed to dig deeper into 

 his shoulder and loins. 



The struggle had not lasted a minute, when the sandy 

 bank suddenly gave way, and down the combatants went 

 into the water. Fortunately for Villandrie, the sudden 

 cold bath made the bear loose her hold : she returned to 

 her cubs, and left her mangled antagonist to get away as 

 well as he could. The next day he reached a Sioux 

 village, very much exhausted from loss of blood; but 

 he got his wounds tolerably healed, and still maintained 

 his character of the best white trapper on the Yellow- 

 stone.* 



Recent travellers in Africa have made us somewhat 

 familiar with the mighty and ferocious brutes of that 

 arid continent, the very metropolis of bestial power. Not 

 only have the missionary, the colonist, and the soldier 

 encountered the lordly animals in their progress into the 

 willerness, but hunters, either for sport or profit, have 

 gone in search of them, bearded the lion by his midnight 

 fountain, and provoked the elephant to single combat in 

 his forest fastnesses. Fearful adventures have hence 

 ensued, the records of which have thrilled us dwellers at 



* Mollhauseii's Journey to the Pacific, i., p. 103. 



