MR. PALLISER'S STORY. 43 



fruit trees and rose-bushes. With his usual deliberation 

 he drew out and stuck crosswise in the ground his ramrod 

 and loading stick for a rest, and a deliberate shot brought 

 the elk down on her tracks. The spot from which 

 he had fired was so steep that we were obliged to turn 

 back and take a more circuitous course to reach her. 

 Boucharville, who had not loaded, went at that moment 

 to a stream, about thirty paces from where the wapiti lay, 

 saying, " Je vais laver ma carabine;" and I leaving my 

 horse to graze, having taken off his bridle and unrolled 

 his halter, was busy, knife in hand, removing the elk's 

 skin, when Boucharville, who by this time had his rifle 

 barrel in the stream, and was sponging away very dili- 

 gently, suddenly shouted, " Un ours ! un ours !" and at 

 the same instant a she grizzly bear emerged from a cherry 

 thicket charging right at him. Boucharville, dropping 

 his rifle barrel, sprang back into a clump of rose-bushes, 

 when the bear, losing sight of him, stood on her hind 

 legs, and I then saw she had a cub of a good size with 

 her. I at first ran to assist my companion ; but seeing 

 him safe and the bear at fault, I rushed back to the horse 

 to secure him, fearing that were he to smell the bear, he 

 would soon speed his way over the prairies, and be lost 

 to me for ever. Seeing me run, the bear instantly charged 

 after me ; and when, having reached the horse, and rolled 

 the halter a couple of times round my arm, I turned about 



