Bear Hunting on the Alaska Peninsula 



bite for his shoulder, showing that my bullet was 

 well placed. He continued to dash ahead, when 

 Nikolai fired, also hitting him in the shoulder with 

 the heavy rifle. He dropped, but gamely tried to 

 rise and face Stereke, who savagely attacked his 

 quarters. Nikolai now fired again, his bullet 

 going in at the chest, raking him the entire length, 

 and lodging under the skin at the hind knee joint. 

 Unfortunately this bear fell in so much water that 

 it was impossible to take any other accurate 

 measurement than the one along his back. This 

 was the largest bear we shot on the mainland, and 

 the one measurement that I was able to take was 

 6 feet 10 inches along the vertebrae. 



On examining the internal effects of his wounds, 

 I found that my bullet had struck the shoulder 

 blade and penetrated one lung, but had gone to 

 pieces on coming in contact with the bone. 

 Although it would have eventually proved a mor- 

 tal wound, the shock at the time was not sufficient 

 to knock the bear off his feet. 



The next morning the storm broke, and we 

 started back to our camp behind the rocks, for the 

 skins we had recently shot needed to be cleaned and 

 dried. We reached camp that afternoon, where I 

 found my old hunter, Fedor, who was now better, 

 and had come to join us. He had arrived the 



