OUR FATAL TEMERITY ERSKINE'S DEATH. 341 



off the dogs, and meet us. Seizing his opportunity, 

 mj comrade ran his steel into his side. The bear 

 turned on him Hke lightning, and seized him ; he 

 uttered a shrill piercing shriek. Driven to desperation 

 by the sight, I plunged my knife three times into tlie 

 monster's body with all my force, v.dthout thinking of 

 jumping back ; at the third thrust the bear turned 

 upon me. Seeing his paw coming, I attempted to evade 

 the blow, felt a sharp pang, and sunk senseless to the 

 ground. 



Wlien I recovered my senses, Bearsgrease was 

 licking the blood from my face. On attempting to 

 rise, I felt a severe pain in my left side, and was unable 

 to move my left arm. On making a fresh effort to 

 rise, I succeeded in sitting up. The bear was close to 

 me, and — less than three feet from him lay Erskine, 

 stiff and cold. I sprang up with a cry of horror, and 

 rushed towards him. It was too true ; he was bathed 

 in blood, his face torn to pieces, his right shoulder 

 almost wrenched away from his body, and five of the 

 best dogs ripped up and with broken limbs lying beside 

 him. The bear was so covered with blood that his 

 color was hardly discernible. My left arm appeared 

 to be out of the socket, but I could feel that no bones 

 were broken. 



The sun had gone down, and I had hoped that the 

 other hunters might have heard our shots and the 

 barking and howling of the dogs. It grew dark. No 

 one came. I roared and shouted like mad ; no one 

 heard me. I tried to hght a fire, but my left arm was 

 so swelled that I gave up the attempt. But as it would 

 have been certain death to pass the night under these, 

 20* 



