218 BIG GAME OP NORTH AMEIIICA. 



the heavy trap, had come back on his trail and lain behind 

 a great heap of dirt, into which he had partly burrowed, 

 waiting for his enemy. Among the debris of spring- tide — 

 fallen stones and uprooted trees — a Bear could easily lie hid- 

 den, if he were mad and wanted to conceal himself, till the 

 enemy was within a few feet. It was a terribly close shave. 



All animals are at times strangely hard to kill; this, I 

 fancy, is especially true of the Grizzly. Again and again 

 he will drop to a welLplanted shot, as will any animal;, 

 nothing that runs can stand up long after it has received a 

 quartering shot — i. e., when the bullet is planted rather well 

 back in the ribs, about half-way up, and ranges forward to 

 the opposite shoulder. Such a shot, especially if the bullet 

 be a fifty-caliber, will drop anything; but the point of the 

 heart may be pierced, or even the lungs cut, and Bears will 

 often fight. 



We stalked two small Grizzlies in the " open " one even- 

 ing. They were busy turning over stones, in order to get 

 the grubs and worms underneath, and when we managed 

 to get, unseen, within forty yards, at first fire each received 

 a bullet broadside behind the shoulder; but, seemingly none 

 the worse, they both turned down-hill, as Bears will when 

 wounded, nine times out of ten, and made for the ravine, 

 whence they had evidently come. This gave me a nice- 

 open shot as they passed, and No. 1 rolled over, dead; not 

 so Wo. 2. Before he got a hundred yards away I hit him 

 three times. My rifle was a fifty-caliber Bullard repeater — 

 the one I have used for years— one hundred grains of pow- 

 der and a solid ball. At the fourth shot he fell in a heap, 

 seemingly dead. To save trouble, and for convenience in 

 skinning, we laid hold of the first one, and dragged him 

 about seventy yards down the steep incline, to where the 

 second lay. We got within a few feet of the Bear, when 

 up he jumped, and, on one hind leg and one fore, went for 

 Frank. The attack was tremendously unexpected and 

 sudden. At a glance you could see that the poor, plucky 

 brute was past hurting anyone, for one arm was smashed, 

 and his lower jaw was shot almost completely away ; yet I 



