276 CAUGHT IN A SNAEE. 



truth of this fact, which at first I rather 

 doubted. 



A villager brought me an Argus pheasant 

 for sale, which he had caught in his musk- 

 deer snares ; at the same time asking me 

 to go and shoot a bear, which had been 

 caught two days ago. When I expressed a 

 doubt as to the probability of finding it still 

 there, he replied, " No, we were sure of doing 

 so, for if it could not succeed in breaking 

 the snare during the first hour or so, it 

 would not afterwards, but if not destroyed, 

 would there die." When we arrived at the 

 place, sure enough there it was, and as soon 

 as it saw us, set up a fearful howling, but 

 did not make any violent efforts to escape. 

 Probably the string, which had cut through 

 the skin and deep into the flesh round the 

 fore-paw, by which it was caught, occasioned 

 such exquisite pain, as to prevent it from 

 struggling. I walked up to within a few 

 paces. The animal, a nearly grown black 

 bear, was half-lying, half- standing, its fore- 

 paw held up by the snare. 



