262 MATEENAL SOLICITUDE. 



Ttie old bear, when she saw us about to 

 follow her up the cleft, made a feint to 

 charge down, possibly hoping to intimidate us, 

 but stop23ed short after making a rush of a 

 few yards. I did not particularly want to 

 kill her, for we were in an out-of-the-way 

 place, where we should have been bothered 

 with the skin, so did not ascend the gully 

 any higher, but sat down and took a quiet 

 shot at her, from where I was stationed, 

 perhaps a distance of three hundred yards. 

 Upon hearing the report, and perhaps also 

 seeing the bullet, which missed her, strike the 

 ground, she made a sudden spring at her 

 young one, pulled it underneath her, and 

 completely covered it, with her own body. 

 In a few moments she let it go, and made 

 another rush downwards, as if to charge, but 

 looking wistfully at her cub, which remained 

 stationary, turned back as before. Another 

 shot had precisely the same effect ; she no 

 sooner heard the report, than she had the 

 cub underneath hei', and then followed a 

 similar rush. I fired several other shots 



