A (I U N T E R ' S Fi r F K . 209 



saw a part of the bear throiij^h a crack in the rock. I saw 

 it also ; and, firing at a venture, I gave him a severe 

 wound, which made him mad, and out he came, full drive 

 A.S he was leaving the hole, I sent a bullet through him, 

 which decided the battle in our favor, and the bear was 

 ours. 



As we went home, I remembered a hole on the route, 

 which we agreed to visit. As we came near the rock, we 

 heard dogs barking in the direction of the hole, and 

 thought that our dogs had sneaked otf, and got into the 

 hole with a bear. Without looking behind us, we ran 

 toward the place ; but when we arrived there we were in 

 advance of our dogs. We then discovered that two other 

 hunters had found a bear in another hole, and, having let 

 him get out, he whipped them and their dogs, and 

 ran off. 



When we arrived at the rock, and I looked down at the 

 mouth of the hole, 1 saw that a bear had been there, but 

 that he had gone ofl". 1 thought, however, that I would 

 go down and look in ; but as I turned my eyes below, lo 

 see where to jump, the head of a very large bear became 

 slowly visible. I immediately shot him in the head ; and, 

 fearing that tlie wound miglit not prove fatal, I took Wil- 

 liam's gun, and gave him the contents of that also. We 

 then both loaded our guns again, and, knowing where the 

 other hunters' dogs would run, we set out to head them 

 off, leaving our bear as he was. 



We proceeded at full speed till we came to the place to 

 which I knew they would run ; but we arrived just after 

 Lhe bear had passed. We saw two of the dogs ; and had 

 we been a quarter of a minute sooner, we would have had 

 a shot at that fellow also. 



In a short time the other hunters came up, and proved 

 to be two of the Davises ; the father being an older man 

 than myself, and one who had killed many bears. He and 

 18* o 



