68 EAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



About a montli after, I " fixed ^^ Sal also. I got 

 up a tree, and watched from twelve o^clock till morn- 

 ing for four days; at last she came, and I fired both 

 barrels of my rifle almost simultaneously into her 

 back. We found her dead two miles off, next day, 

 by the help of the dog, both balls having gone clean 

 through her. 



On a later occasion I nearly got into a scrape by 

 attacking a bear foolishly. I was hunting in the Sierra 

 Nevada, and was told that three bears had been seen 

 constantly on a particular hillside for the last two weeks. 

 I went and viewed, and saw them every day for a week ; 

 but the place where they were was so exposed and 

 barren of cover that I was afraid to attack them. One 

 evening there was only one of them there. I considered 

 a long time, and at length made up my mind I would 

 have a try at him. I crawled to within eighty yards of 

 him, rested my rifle on a piece of rock, and pulled dead 

 on his shoulder. I heard the bullet strike, and saw the 

 bear drop, but he was up again in a moment, and uttering 

 a sharp whimper, came bang at me, or rather at the 

 smoke. I did not move, but covered him with the 

 second barrel, and shot him in the breast, at about sixty- 

 five yards ofi*. He uttered a growl, and seemed to come 

 nearly as fast as ever. I ran to the belt of forest near 

 which I had taken the precaution to conceal myself, 

 and uncommonly little time I had to spare too. In my 

 hurry I missed the tree I had previously marked as the 

 easiest to climb. I dropped my rifle, and ran for a branch 

 that hung low down almost to the ground, and, thanks 

 to my gymnastics at McLaren^s at Oxford, I was up in 

 no time. The bear came and shook the branch, and the 

 tree, too, for the matter of that, and growled most 



