bruin's cave. 315 



men, who had ever ventured mto the place, for the 

 ground retained every impression that had been made 

 in it. In some places the marks of the bears were 

 petrified, having perhaps been left centuries ago. Once 

 the thought occurred to me : should we ever get out 

 again, or perish here from hunger ? I went on how- 

 ever, all my senses on the stretch, to discover the sleep- 

 ing bear. 



We disturbed immense numbers of bats with our 

 torches, and found also several crickets and a few blue- 

 bottle flies. When my torch was nearly burnt out, I 

 stopped for a supply from young Conwell ; the moment 

 I remained quite still, I thought I heard a low whining 

 not far off; and listening attentively, I distinctly heard 

 the sound bear cubs make in sucking, and a low deep 

 growling ; so there was no longer any doubt but that we 

 were near a she-bear with cubs. 



The place where I had stopped was rather more 

 roomy, so that I could sit up, and I turned to the two 

 Conwells and asked if they heard the sound, which 

 they answered with a whispered " Yes ; " — and we held 

 a short council as to further proceedings. In the first 

 place, the cave was smaller further on — secondly we 

 had only expected a sleeping bear, instead of a she-bear 

 awake and with cubs, for which it was rather early in 

 the season ; though C. told me afterwards, that in 

 Arkansas he had occasionally met with bear cubs as 

 early as January. Whoever has seen a she-bear defend 

 her young, with ears laid back and open jaws, may 

 form some idea of our feelings. We were all bear- 

 killers, and knew well enough the danger we were 

 encountering in a space almost too narrow to admit of 



