ntruders, gave one short glance of unutterable amazement, and then
rebounded into the bush like an electrified indiarubber ball.

"Now, then," said Bounce as he leaped ashore, and held the canoe steady
while his comrades landed, "jist be cool, an' no hurry; make the
portage, launch the canoe atop o' the fall, sot off agin, an' then--
hurrah for that there grisly bar!"

CHAPTER FOUR.

GIBAULT HAS AN ADVENTURE, AND DISCOVERS A VERY STRANGE CREATURE IN THE
WOODS--A MOST TREMENDOUS BEAR-HUNT PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED.

Meanwhile Black Gibault, having followed the course of the river for
some distance on foot, struck into the woods, sought for and found the
track of the bear, and, looking carefully to the priming of his gun, and
knocking the edge of the flint to sharpen it, pushed forward in pursuit
with the ardour of a reckless man.

Gibault Noir was a goose! But he was an amiable goose; therefore men
forgave his follies. Had Gibault not been a goose he never would have
set off alone in pursuit of a grisly bear when he had comrades who might
have accompanied him. Every one knows--at least, if every one does not
know, every one who reads these pages may know henceforth--that the
grisly bear of the western prairies and Rocky Mountains is one of the
most desperate and most dreaded animals on the face of the earth; not
dreaded merely by the weak and the timorous, but dreaded also by the
bravest Indians and the boldest trappers. Of course we do not mean to
say that by these latter the grisly bear is dreaded with anything like
cowardly terror; but it is regarded with that degree of wholesome
anxiety and extreme caution with which men usually regard an excessively
dangerous and powerful enemy.

Unlike other bears, the grisly bear scorns to fly from before the face
of man. His ferocity, when wounded, is terrible, and his tenacity of
life is such that, however many mortal wounds one may give him, he will
retain life and strength long enough to kill his assailant before he
himself dies, unless he is shot dead at once by a ball being planted in
his heart or brain, both of which are difficult to reach.

He has a grumpy sort of magnanimity of his own, however, and will
usually let men alone if men will let him alone. But men are not prone
to let anything alone; hence encounters are frequent; wounds, on both
sides, are numerous; and death, on one or other side, is almost certain.

Old trappers are not fond of attacking Cal