ts retentive claws, being firmly fixed under
the pommel of the saddle.

A singular struggle now ensued, which lasted for some seconds of time;
the horse making the meet energetic efforts to escape; while the bear
was equally eager in endeavouring to retain him.

Lucky was it for the steed that his master was not more particular about
the girth of his saddle, and that either the strap or buckle was a bad
one. Whichever of the two it was, one of them gave way; and the horse,
thus freed, was not slow to profit by the fortunate accident. Uttering
a neigh of joy, he sprang onward--leaving both bear and saddle behind
him.

So far as the horse was concerned, his danger was over. Not so with the
bear, whose troubles were just now to begin. While holding the horse in
his muscular arm--and clutching the pine with the other--the tree had
got bent until its top almost touched the saddle. When the girth broke,
therefore, the elastic sapling sprang back like a piece of whalebone;
and with such an impetus as not only to shake Bruin from his hold, but
to pitch him several yards to the opposite side--where he lay stunned,
or at all events so astonished, as, for a moment, to appear as if he had
taken leave of his life!

This moment of the bear's embarrassment was not lost upon the hunters,
who ran rapidly up--till within ten paces of the prostrate animal--and
discharging their guns into his body, prevented him from ever again
getting to his feet. His hide was the only part of him that afterwards
attained the erect attitude; and that was when it was mounted in the
museum of the Palace Grodonoff.

CHAPTER SIXTY THREE.

THE SNOW BEAR.

Higher up the Himalayas dwells the "snow bear." This species has
received from naturalists the very fanciful appellation of the "Isabella
bear" (_ursus isabellinus_)--a title suggested by its colour being that
known as "Isabella colour,"--the type of which was the very dirty gown
worn by Queen Isabella at the siege of Grenada. It is doubtful whether
any living man could exactly tell what is an Isabella colour; and the
use of such a phrase in describing the hue of an animal's skin is
altogether indefinite and, to say the least, absurd.

The "Isabella bears," moreover, are not always of the so called Isabella
colour. On the contrary, there are some of dark-brown, some of a hoary
brown, and others nearly white; and to Himalayan hunters they are known
by the various appellations of brown, r