BEAR SHOOTING IN CALIFORNIA. 69 



hideously; but the two bullets he had got in him were 

 evidently making him feel like knocking under, and 

 in about a quarter of an hour he walked off, considerably 

 slower than he came. Oh for my rifle now ! However, 

 I knew he could not go very far by the quantity of blood 

 he left behind him. We tracked him by dogs next day 

 for over a mile to his den, and at his coming out, very 

 feebly, to attack the dogs, I shot him through the skull 

 with the first barrel of my rifle. 



There are very few, if any, of the professional hunters 

 who will attack a bear, such is his ferocity and agility. 

 A good many of my readers, no doubt, have read stories 

 and seen pictures of hunters, and Indians especially, 

 " waiting for the bear to rise on his hind legs, and then 

 plunging a knife into his bosom." Tell that to the 

 marines ! Why I have seen a bear rush into a herd of 

 cattle, rise up and knock a bullock down almost before 

 you could wink. When I add that he can go as fast as 

 a horse can canter, and that his cunning is marvellous, 

 you can imagine you have got '' to keep your eye well 

 peeled." To hunt him successfully you want a cool head, 

 great nerve, and, above all, ^cuteness in stalking him. 

 The best weapon is a double-barrel gun, with a couple of 

 hardened bullets ; it shoots harder, quicker, and truer, I 

 think, for eighty yards than a rifle, and you can nearly 

 always get as close as you like to a grizzly — often a good 

 deal closer. 



I found it would be quite impossible for me to go back 

 to Santa Cruz without that infernal nuisance Zack. 

 '' Why the boys would as soon miss a dorg-fight as let 

 yer go without interviewing yer, arter fixing up them 

 bars ; my ! the idee !" I suppose the news had gone 

 before me, as there was as varied a collection of scaliwags 



