276 SHORT STALKS 



and crossed the intervening crest. Guided by loud talk- 

 ing we quickly found the other party. Geof had seen 

 something through the tree-stems and pulled Per down 

 into the bilberry bushes. From this place of concealment 

 they made out two bears, as usual busy with the fruit. 

 Keeping very Hat he crawled forward. Then one of the 

 animals moved towards him and o;ave him a o-ood chance. 

 He took a steady aim behind the shoulder, and knocked 

 him right over. But, as he was about to fire his second 

 shot at the other bear, the first gathered himself together, 

 rose up, shook himself, and made oif. A second shot 

 failed to stop him. Loading as he went Geof ran forward 

 as fast as the roughness of the ground would permit, and 

 actually overtook the bear, or at least got near enough to 

 perceive the wound in its side ; but the meeting was so 

 sudden and unexpected to man and beast that, while the 

 latter slid off the edge of the rock like oil, two more 

 bullets went over his back. He was evidently severely 

 wounded but he had now reached the edge of a steep de- 

 clivity down which he went, sliding, rolling and tumbling, 

 and was instantly lost to view. 



Geof was under that common delusion that the lost 

 bear was of very large size. The next hour was therefore 

 almost too exciting to be pleasant. We hunted every 

 cranny of that clilf, never knowing from moment to 

 moment whether the infuriated beast would not spring 

 out upon us. At last darkness drove us down, and in a 

 very depressed condition of mind we rowed away to our 

 night's tjuarters. But the first streak of dawn found us 

 on the spot again, reinforced by a company of peasants, 

 and we carefully quartered the ground. This measure 



