MY LAST BEAR. 93 



wished heM swallow a capped cartridge or two, warranted 

 not to miss fire ! I almost fell out of the tree laughing 

 at the idea. He eventually threw it on one side and 

 waddled off; I don^t believe he had a scratch on him 

 worth mentioning, and he seemed to think the whole 

 afiair had been got up for his special amusement. I must 

 have stayed up that blessed tree for more than an hour, 

 holloaing like a costermonger. At length, after an 

 astounding whoop on my part, I heard a sound of 

 voices near the tree, and there was the colonel almost 

 beside himself with laughter. " Treed, by the jumping 

 Jehosaphat — treed by a cinnamon V and again he went 

 into fits of laughter. " Confound your cinnamons ; what 

 on earth did you leave me for, you dirty rascal !" I 

 shouted from my perch to the noble red man. The brute 

 only smiled demoniacally, and said in his disgusting 

 jargon, " Cap (meaning me), him velly goot hunter,^' 

 at which the colonel rolled in the grass. ^' Til cut your 

 ears off, you beast, you," I yelled as I came sliding down 

 the tree tearing my buckskins and hands all to pieces ; 

 but the savage ^^ put." 



''^ Never mind, Oliver, we'll kill that cinnamon yet 

 before you are many days older." " Well, you may 

 if you like, but you don't get me going out aft-er 

 bars again, unless I knew what I'm at, and am properly 

 armed." I didn't hanker after cinnamons after that 

 scrape. 



Shooting bears with small-bore rifles is a one-sided 

 game, as the bear generally takes the whole of the pool. 

 The best weapon is a ten or twelve smooth bore, with 

 hardened (not too hard) bullets. A couple of these pills 

 will stop anything short of an elephant at any distance 

 under forty yards. The regular hunters generally lie in 



