92 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



turned his kind attentions to me exclusively. I ran 

 across the most open parts, dodging behind trees and 

 looking oub for one at all negotiable. I began to get 

 tired out, my knees began to feel weak, and I broke out 

 into a cold sweat ; I holloaed at the top of my voice, but 

 no one replied. The bear did not gain on me, but then 

 I did not gain on the bear, and at this hide-and-seek 

 business I knew I must cave in at last. I fired one 

 or two snap shots at the brute, but I don^t believe I hit 

 him once. Pictures of Injuns and hunters rose up before 

 me, killing bears with one thrust of their knives ; but 

 then they were always grizzlies that were killed in that 

 manner, and I could not recollect a single cinnamon 

 being fixed ofi* so. I stripped ofi" my jacket, cartridges 

 and all, and threw it on the ground, and then started 

 once more across the clearing full tilt, to try and get 

 away among the chapparal. I tripped slightly over a 

 bramble, and dropped my carbine ; I never stopped even 

 to think, but flew along. It would have been romantic 

 for the colonel to have turned up now and shot the bear 

 just as he was about to lay hold of me ; but he didn^t. 

 Nearly all the firs were big trees, quite denuded of limbs 

 near the ground, but at last I did see one that had a few 

 short stumps, and I made for it. I swung myself up a 

 few feet, swarmed up as far as I could, and then took 

 a look down. There was the bear at the bottom with a 

 wondering look on his face, as if he was wondering what 

 on earth I was at up there. All sorts of dreadful stories 

 about men being kept up in trees for days together 

 crowded through my mind, but I was very soon relieved 

 from all trouble on that score, as after a few minutes he 

 went away at a shuffling trot, and I could see him from 

 my eyrie quietly tearing my jacket to pieces. How I 



