BEAR HUNTING. 
2S3 
If the first shot be a miss, or inflict only a superficial wound, the 
dogs, which have been baying him in a wary semicircle, the 
coldest now dashing in and giving him a nip, and instantly, if so 
fortunate as to escape his hug or fatal blow, retreating to a 
secure distance, break in upon him with a simultaneous crash of 
tongues; but knocking them over right and left, he fights his 
way clear through and again onward, onward through the 
densest canes crackling like straws or stubble before his headlong 
impetus, with the pack again yelling at his heels, till his speed 
slackens, his wind fails him, he again turns to the combat, and 
is at length brought down by a better aimed and deadliei 
bullet. 
The head of a Bear never should be aimed at; in the first 
place, because the animal, when at bay, keeps it constantly in 
motion, so that it offers anything but an easy mark; in the 
second, that it is so hard, and of a form so singularly rounded, 
that unless the ball strike it at right angles, on a perpendicular 
line, it is almost sure to glance off at a tangent, without inflict¬ 
ing a wound. 
The best places at which to aim are, the centre of the breast 
if the Bear be coming directly at you; if he be facing you, erect 
on his hind quarters, a little to the left, and low down on the 
breast toward the belly; if he be crossing you, behind the 
shoulder, about the arch of the ribs. In any one of these places, 
an ounce, or even a half-ounce bullet—I should be loath to shoot 
at a Bear with anything smaller—will find the heart, and do 
the business, without giving the trouble of a second shot. 
If it be necessary to take to the knife, never strike, for the Bear 
is sure to parry the blow, but always thrust, which if it take 
effect, inflicts a far more certain and deadly wound; and in 
thrusting, keep the edge of your blade, which should be very 
keen and heavy, upward and outward, if you are facing the 
animal; and forward, if you are standing against his broadside. 
By this means his paw, in parrying, will meet the edge of the 
knife, which will probably disable him. But the better way 
with a wounded Bear, if your dogs are in such sufficient force, 
