3190 Quadrupeds. 



being also accompanied by a mountain hunter, whom he had met and 

 easily induced to join our forces; and our companions having arrived 

 from the glacier, we prepared to start for the scene of action just as it 

 was getting dusk, at about 9, p. m. Two of our party were armed with 

 rifles, the two others with double-barrelled guns, while sundry hunt- 

 ing-knives stuck in our belts and pistols in our pockets completed our 

 arms. We soon reached the torrent whose banks we intended to 

 guard, and whose waters came roaring and foaming down the steep 

 mountain-side in an almost continuous cataract from the snows above. 

 At the first snow-drift, which falling in an avalanche in the spring into 

 some deeper hollow, had remained unmelted, and formed a natural 

 bridge over the rushing waters, was stationed one of our party : ano- 

 ther was planted some hundred yards higher up : at the third suitable 

 position I was placed ; the Captain taking up his position some dis- 

 tance above me : and the old huntsman who had joined us mounting 

 to the outskirts of the underwood, which clothed the lower face of the 

 mountain-side and concealed the bear. Amongst us we must have 

 covered a good mile of the torrent. Meanwhile all the men and boys 

 of the village had started some hours before to the other side of the 

 mountain, where forming a long line, and with shouts and halloos and 

 much firing of a pistol which we had lent them for the purpose, they 

 advanced gradually tow r ards us, scaring the ptarmigan and all the fea- 

 thered and furred denizens of the mountain by the unwonted noise, 

 and endeavouring to drive the bear towards the torrent where we were 

 concealed. 



At this time we were snugly ensconced each in his retreat, pre- 

 pared to oppose the passage of the bear, should he venture to cross 

 the snow near which we were placed. Our instructions, given by the 

 mountain hunter and translated by the Captain, were that we should 

 lie perfectly still and watch for the bear : should he come towards us, 

 we were to wait until he was within thirty or forty yards, then halloo 

 to him, at which he would stop and stand up on his hind legs to lis- 

 ten and inquire the cause of this interruption to his progress; at which 

 moment we should have a famous opportunity for a shot. At the re- 

 port of a rifle or gun, we were all to hurry to the spot as soon as pos- 

 sible ; though the distance at which we were from one another, and 

 the excessive steepness of the mountain, would have made this plan of 

 little use had the bear come near either of us, as the conflict must have 

 been decided one way or the other long before that. The old hunts- 

 man of the mountains ended his harangue by impressing upon us the 



