278 BIG GAME OF WORTH AMERICA. 



and snapping of cane, and the cry of the dogs, gave me the 

 buck-ague terribly. I was afraid the Bear would not pass 

 by me. But a few minutes elapsed, however, before I saw the 

 cane and snow and icicles snapped and pushed aside, and not 

 ten feet from me rushed the tremendous, savage beast. I 

 don' t think he saw me. I fired the left barrel, loaded with an 

 ounce-and-a-half ball, into his side, just back of the shoul- 

 der, and as he sank to the shot I jammed the muzzle of the 

 gun to the ear and fired the second shot, bursting nearly 

 half of the head off. Old Kate -had him by the hind leg 

 before I fired the second shot, and the balance of the pack 

 were up before the last smoke cleared away. Three long 

 blasts of my horn announced my victory, and in a few 

 minutes the Parson, Taylor, and Phillips dashed up, with 

 Nix a short time after them. 



"Just as I predicted," said Phillips; "this old Bear 

 had gone back to his bed. Old Kate winded him at least 

 two hundred yards before getting to the bed. She did not 

 open, but broke for the bed, with all the pack following 

 her. I am confident the Bear had heard us, and had left 

 the bed before the dogs got to it. It was so fat it could not 

 run far before the dogs came up with it, and then it was a 

 fight from there on until you shot. I feel assured it would 

 not have gone, a mile further before turning to bay, and 

 some one of us would have got the shot had you not 

 headed it." 



The run was short, and the ending glorious. There was 

 nothing more to do now but get our two Bears together, 

 skin, quarter, and divide, and then to return to our respect- 

 ive homes; and thus ended the most trying, the coldest, and 

 most successful hunt I ever made in Arkansas. 



