The Unexpected 137 



the meat. He went on then, in a half-hearted way, and we 

 had gone perhaps three hundred yards, when, on looking 

 across the creek and behind some bushes among a few fir- 

 trees, I saw what I took to be a moose. I had scarcely 

 called out, "Look at the small moose," when the moose 

 suddenly stood up on its hind legs and looked over the 

 bushes at us. 



Carlin said, "It's a bear," and gave her a .30-40 bullet 

 through the shoulders, and she reversed ends so quickly 

 that we could not afterward remember seeing a motion 

 until we saw the bottoms of her hind feet two yards in the 

 air. Then she struck the ground with a loud roar, and two 

 cubs joined in with their bawls. We sprang across the 

 creek, found the old bear down and moaning fearfully, 

 and Carlin planted another bullet in her head that shat- 

 tered it into many pieces. 



The cubs were in the bushes and they now set up a roar. 

 One of them showed itself and I laid it out, and about the 

 same time Carlin got a shot at the other and ended the 

 encounter. This was the first time that either of us had 

 had the opportunity of observing the effect of high-power 

 bullets on living targets. When we skinned the old bear, 

 notwithstanding that no shot had hit her back of the 

 shoulder, we found that the bottoms of her hind feet were 

 clotted with blood under the skin, presumably owing to 

 the shock. 



The excitement cured CarHn of his illness, and in spite 

 of the fact that there was no meat for dinner, we returned 

 to camp in high spirits. 



