THE TERRIBLE. 



look at his beaver traps, he had to break his way 

 through some thick bushes that grew on a high 

 bank above a small river. He was going along, 

 pushing back the twigs with the barrel of his 

 rifle, and keeping an eye on the bank, when all at 

 once he found himself close to an old she grizzly 

 bear, which rose instantly and dashed furiously at 

 the horse, as he was struggling with the shrubs 

 and bushes. One blow of her colossal paw was 

 enough to break his back, and to throw Villandrie 

 down the bank, his rifle falling into the water. 

 Three half-grown cubs now occupied themselves 

 with the poor struggling horse, while the raging 

 mother rushed towards 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 di'd 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 vil- 

 lage, 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 some- 

 what familiar with the mighty and ferocious 

 brutes of that arid continent, the very metropolis 

 Mollhausen's "Journey to the Pacific," i. p. 103. 

 233 



