THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
on the hillside above them, and the beast in its dying agonies rolled to the 
feet of the hunters and then jumped up and seized them. In one case the 
bear died in a few minutes, and in the other a second Indian gallantly came 
to the rescue and killed the animal with his knife. 
A white man, a fisherman of Fortune Bay, met a large black bear on 
the beach some years ago. The bear had been killing sheep on an island 
close by and so his death was much desired. The man knocked the bear 
over with a single shot, and going up to it and finding it was still alive he 
commenced to reload his rifle, when the bear rose and attacked him. 
The man was found to be horribly lacerated and dead when discovered a 
few days afterwards. 
There is, too, the famous case of the Red Deer River bear, which, a few 
years ago, swam a river and made an unprovoked attack on three men 
belonging to a lumber camp. Two of them ran to the shelter of the log hut, 
but the third, having an injured leg, was caught by the bear and disem- 
bowelled outside the hut. One of the men in the house then seized a rifle 
and shot the bear, who was in the very act of eating the man alive. The 
unfortunate fellow died in a few minutes. At first this bear was always 
considered to be a black bear, but close inquiries by expert witnesses 
seem to point to the fact that the bear was a grizzly that had wandered 
down into Manitoba from the north. 
It will be seen from the above that the black bear will on rare occasions 
fight when his opponent is close alongside, and that all the accidents that 
have happened would, in nearly every case, have been avoided by firing 
another cartridge. It is never safe to go right up to even so harmless a 
creature as a deer, and if due care is taken with the black bear it is never 
aggressive. 
Black bears being numerous are easy to kill and to find. They are harm- 
less and interesting creatures, but should never be shot unless the hunter 
wishes to add a couple to his collection, and then only in early spring and 
late autumn when the pelage is good. 
I had the good fortune, one day in September, 1908, to see a fine male 
in the act of fishing. We came to a little branch river flowing into the 
Stickine, and thinking a black bear or a grizzly might be there I carefully 
made a detour and crawled up to a small mound that overlooked the 
pools that were swarming with hump -backed salmon. It was snowing, 
as usual, and I could not see very far in the gloom. Presently my eyes 
became accustomed to the light, and I saw in the middle of the stream a 
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