Adventure and adventurers > Hudson Bay, or, Everyday life in the wilds of North America

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ADVENTURE WITH A BEAR.
occasionally listening for a shot from my Indian’s gun.
At last he fired, and almost immediately after fired
again; for you must know that some Indians can load
so fast that two shots from their single'barrel sound
almost like the discharge in succession of the two shots
from a double-barrelled gun. Shortly after, I heard
another shot; and then, as all became silent, I con¬
cluded he had killed the bear, and that I should
soon find him cutting it up. Just as I thought this, a
fierce growl alarmed me; so, seizing a pistol which I
always carried with me, I hastened forward. As I came
nearer, I heard a man’s voice mingled with the growls of
a bear; and upon arriving at the foot of a small mound,
my Indian’s voice, apostrophizing death, became dis¬
tinctly audible. ‘ Come, Death! ’ said he, in a contemp¬
tuous tone; ‘ you have got me at last, but the Indian does
not fear you ! ’ A loud angry growl from the bear, as he
saw me rushing up the hill, stopped him; and the unfor¬
tunate man turned his eyes upon me with an imploring
look. He was lying on his back, while the bear (a
black one) stood over him, holding one of his arms in
its mouth. In rushing up the mound I unfortunately
stumbled, and filled my pistol with snow; so that when
the bear left the Indian and rushed towards me it
missed fire, and I had only left me the poor, almost
hopeless chance, of stunning the savage animal with a
blow of the butt-end. Just as he was rearing on his
hind legs, my eye fell upon the Indian’s axe, which
fortunately lay at my feet; and seizing it, I brought it
down with all my strength on the bear’s head, just at
the moment that he fell upon me, and we rolled down