. The hunter and the trapper in North America ; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest. From the French of Bénédict Révoil . d his hatchet in the other, he began toforage among the decayed timber. He had scarcely com-menced this game before a bear sprang to the opening;but the guide dealt him on the skull so terrible a blowthat, growling and moaning, he retired to the further endof his asylum. The stake was again thrust into the opening, and thestirring recommenced. As the noise had ceased, I pro-posed, at all hazards, to fire a bullet into the ball went on its way whistling,
. The hunter and the trapper in North America ; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest. From the French of Bénédict Révoil . d his hatchet in the other, he began toforage among the decayed timber. He had scarcely com-menced this game before a bear sprang to the opening;but the guide dealt him on the skull so terrible a blowthat, growling and moaning, he retired to the further endof his asylum. The stake was again thrust into the opening, and thestirring recommenced. As the noise had ceased, I pro-posed, at all hazards, to fire a bullet into the ball went on its way whistling, and a few secondsafterwards a cub, scarcely so big as a fox, sprang out,bounded to the edge of the lake, and plunged into its 294 DEATH OF THE SHE-BEAR. waters. One of my comrades and myself discharged ourguns at him; I was the more fortunate of the two; myball struck the animal, who ceased all movement, and, bythe aid of the boat, was soon brought back to the shore. Meanwhile the third hunter had fired again into thebottom of the cave. Nothing stirred. A profound silenceprevailed in the dark burrow. We resolved to open it. HE BEGAN TO FORAGE AMONG THE DECAYED TIMBER. up to the day by removing all the leaves and branches,and lo! in the lair lay dead the she-bear, whose skull hadbeen split open by our guides hatchet. A single bullet—it was mine—had terminated her days. We found it inher body when stripping off the skin; and as my gunwas the only one of No. 16 calibre, my comrades werecompelled to own that I was king of the chase. Theguide alone divided with me the honours of victory. Here follows another story of hunting the grisly bear,which was told to me by the hero of it:— AN ENGLISH SETTLER. 295 During my residence in the town of St. Louis, in theUnited States, I had occasion to associate myself withsome of those adventurous merchants who carry on adangerous but lucrative traJB&c in the centre of the Ame-rican desert. Their absence is sometimes prolonged forupward
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