om the mounds of heaped snow
that lay at the foot of most of them. Neither stones nor trees were
carried down here, however, for the cliffs were nearly perpendicular,
and the snow slipping over their edges had fallen on the grass below.
Such an avalanche was now about to take place, and it was this that
caused Joe to utter his cry of alarm and warning.

Henri and the horse were directly under the cliff over which it was
about to be hurled, the latter close to the wall of rock, the other at
some distance away from it.

Joe cried again, "Back, Henri! back _vite_!" when the mass _flowed over_
and fell with a roar like prolonged thunder. Henri sprang back in time
to save his life, though he was knocked down and almost stunned, but
poor Charlie was completely buried under the avalanche, which now
presented the appearance of a _hill_ of snow.

The instant Henri recovered sufficiently, Joe and he mounted their
horses and galloped back to the camp as fast as possible.

Meanwhile, another spectator stepped forward upon the scene they had
left, and surveyed the snow hill with a critical eye. This was no less
than a grizzly bear which had, unobserved, been a spectator, and which
immediately proceeded to dig into the mound with the purpose, no doubt,
of disentombing the carcase of the horse for purposes of his own.

While he was thus actively engaged, the two hunters reached the camp
where they found that Pierre and his party had just arrived. The men
sent out in search of them had scarcely advanced a mile when they found
them trudging back to the camp in a very disconsolate manner. But all
their sorrows were put to flight on hearing of the curious way in which
the horses had been returned to them with interest.

Scarcely had Dick Varley, however, congratulated himself on the recovery
of his gallant steed, when he was thrown into despair by the sudden
arrival of Joe with the tidings of the catastrophe we have just related.

Of course there was a general rush to the rescue. Only a few men were
ordered to remain to guard the camp, while the remainder mounted their
horses and galloped towards the gorge where Charlie had been entombed.
On arriving, they found that Bruin had worked with such laudable zeal
that nothing but the tip of his tail was seen sticking out of the hole
which he had dug. The hunters could not refrain from laughing as they
sprang to the ground, and standing in a semicircle in front of the hole,
prepare