BEAR HUNTING. 
275 
tried dogs : four of the best the country could produce were 
sent in, and a most demoniacal affray and hubbub followed with¬ 
in the bowels of the earthfast rock ; but, in a little while, three 
of our canine friends were glad enough to make their exit, man¬ 
gled, and maimed, and bleeding; more fortunate than their 
companion, whose greater pluck had only earned for him a 
harder and more mournful fate. We sent for fire-works ; and 
kept up, for some three hours, such a din, and such a stench, as 
might have scared the devil from his lair; but bruin bore it all 
with truly stoical endurance. Miners were summoned next; 
and we essayed to blast the granite, but it was all in vain, the 
hardness of the stone defied our labors. Three days had passed 
away, and we were now no nearer than at first'—every means 
had been tried, and every means found futile. Blank disap¬ 
pointment sat on every face, when Michael Draw, Tom’s bro¬ 
ther, not merely volunteered, but could not be by any means 
deterred from going down into the den, and shooting the brute 
in its very hold. Dissuasion and remonstrance were in vain— 
he was bent on it!—and, at length Tom, who had been the most 
resolved in opposition, exclaimed, ‘ If he will go, let him!’ so 
that decided the whole matter. 
“ The cave, it seemed, had been explored already, and its 
localities were known to several of the party, but more particu¬ 
larly to the bold volunteer who had insisted on this perilous 
enterprise. The well-like aperture, which could alone be seen 
from without, descended, widening gradually as it got farther 
from the surface, for somewhat more than eight feet. At that 
depth the fissure turned off at right angles, running nearly hori¬ 
zontally, an arch of about three feet in height, and some two 
yards in length, into a small and circular chamber, beyond which 
there was no passage whether for man or beast, and in which it 
was certain that the well-known and much-detested Bear had 
taken up his winter quarters. The plan, then, on which Michael 
had resolved, was to descend into this cavity, with a rope se¬ 
curely fastened under his arm-pits, provided with a sufficient 
quantity of lights, and his good musket—to worm himself feet 
