278 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
or, at most, four paces of the frantic monster ,* while, to increase 
the peril, a wild and ill-directed volley, fired in haste and fear, 
was poured in by the watchers, the bullets whistling on every 
side, but with far greater peril to our friends than to the object 
of their aim. Tom drew his gun up coolly—pulled—but no 
spark replied to the unlucky flint. With a loud curse he dashed 
the useless musket to the ground, unsheathed his butcher-knife, 
and rushed on to attack the wild beast, single-handed. At the 
same point of time, I saw my sight, as I fetched up my rifle, in 
clear relief against the dark fur of the head, close to the root 
of the left ear !—my finger was upon the trigger, when, mor¬ 
tally wounded long before, exhausted by his dying effort—the 
huge brute pitched headlong, without waiting for my shot, and, 
within ten feet of his destined victims, ‘ in one wild roar ex¬ 
pired.’ He had received all four of Michael’s bullets !—the 
first shot had planted one ball in his lower jaw, which it had 
shattered fearfully, and another in his neck !—the second had 
driven one through the right eye into the very brain, and cut a 
long deep furrow on the crown with the other ! Six hundred 
and odd pounds did he weigh ! He was the largest, and the 
last! None of his shaggy brethren have visited, since his de¬ 
cease, the woods of Warwick !—nor shall I ever more, I trust, 
witness so dread a peril so needlessly encountered.” 
The above is no fancy sketch, but is true to the letter, with 
the sole exception, that the narrator was not present, as has 
been stated above; and that the names of the real actors in the 
scene have been slightly, very slightly, altered : and with this I 
shall conclude my narrative of Northern Bear-hunting. 
In the South and the South-west, on the contrary, Bear-hunt¬ 
ing is a favorite and systematically followed sport. 
Many gentlemen in Louisiana and Mississippi keep regular 
packs of Bear-hounds, and go to great expense and trouble in 
training, managing and hunting them together; and, as to dogs, 
if not to men, this sport abounds with bloody catastrophes—the 
cost from wear and tear, and necessary expenditure of life, is 
