THE DEATH SHOT. 308 
but much harsher. He keni his ground witn- 
ovt attempting to molest th’ . und they, on 
their part, after attentively regarding him for 
some time, generally wheeled round and galloped 
off, though, from their disposition, there is little 
doubt but he would have been torn in pieces 
had he lost his presence of mind and attempted 
to fly. When he discovered them from a dis. 
tance, he generally frightened them away by 
beating on a large tin box, in which he carried 
his specimens of plants. He never saw more 
than four together, and twa of these he supposes 
to have been cubs; he more often met them 
singly or in pairs. He was only once attacked, 
and then by a female, for. the purpose of allow- 
ing her cubs time to escape. His gun on this 
occasion missed fire, but he kept her at bay with 
the stock of it, until some gentlemen of the 
Hudson’s Bay Company, with whom he was 
‘travelling at the time, came up and drove her 
off. In the latter end of June, 1826, he ob- 
served a male caressing a female, and soon after- 
wards they both came towards him, but whether 
accidentally, or for the purpose of attacking him, 
he was uncertain. He ascended a tree, and as 
the female drew near, fired at and mortally 
wounded her. She uttered a few loud screams, 
which threw the male into a furious rage, and 
he reared up against the trunk of the tree ip 
26* 
