, in the
direction in which he had been walking, a cape, which the rising tide
now washed, prevented his retreating; so that the only chance for the
brute to escape was by running past the trapper, within a few yards of
him. In this dilemma, the bear bethought himself of trying the
precipice; so, collecting himself, he made a bolt for it, and actually
managed to scramble up thirty or forty feet, when bang went the boy's
gun; but the shot missed, and it appeared as if the beast would actually
get away, when the trapper took a deliberate aim and fired. The effect
of the shot was so comical, that the two hunters could scarcely re-load
their guns for laughing. Bruin, upon receiving the shot, covered his
head with his fore-paws, and, curling himself up like a ball, came
thundering down the precipice head over heels, raising clouds of dust,
and hurling showers of stones down in his descent, till he actually
rolled at the trapper's feet; and then, getting slowly up, he looked at
him with such a bewildered expression, that the man could scarcely
refrain from laughter, even while in the act of blowing the beast's
brains out.

This man had also a narrow escape of having a _boxing_ match with a
moose-deer or elk. The moose had a strange method of fighting with its
fore feet, getting up on its hind legs, and boxing, as it were, with
great energy and deadly force. The trapper, upon the occasion referred
to, was travelling with an Indian, who, having discovered the track of a
moose in the snow, set off in chase of it, while the trapper pursued his
way with the Indian's pack of furs and provisions on his shoulders. He
had not gone far when he heard a shot, and the next moment a moose-deer,
as large as a horse, sprang through the bushes and stood in front of
him. The animal came so suddenly on the trapper that it could not turn;
so, rising up with a savage look, it prepared to strike him, when
another shot was fired from among the bushes by the Indian, and the
moose, springing nearly its own height into the air, fell dead upon the
snow.

In chasing the moose during winter in some parts of these countries,
where the ground is broken and rugged, the hunters are not unfrequently
exposed to the danger of falling over the precipices which the deceptive
glare of the snow conceals from view, until, too late, he finds the
treacherous snow giving way beneath his feet. On one occasion a young
man in the service of the Company received