hunter who,
pursued by one of these monsters, took advantage of this propensity to
save his life. His rifle was unloaded. Of course he had not wounded
the bear, or his stratagem would have been in vain. Throwing himself on
the ground, the hunter closed his eyes, and stretching out his limbs,
feigned to be dead. It must have been a fearful moment when he felt the
bear lift up his body in his claws to carry him away to the
neighbourhood of his lair. The bear having dug a hole, placed him in
it, and covered him carefully with leaves, grass, and bushes. An
Indian, or hardy backwoodsman, could alone have existed under such
circumstances. The hunter waited anxiously till he heard loud snores
proceeding from the cavern. Then, slipping up, like Jack the
Giant-killer from the castle of the ogre, he scampered off as fast as
his legs could carry him.

Mr Kane--the Canadian artist--mentions meeting a grizzly when in
company with an old, experienced half-breed hunter, Francois by name.
Francois, however, declined firing, alleging that the risk was greater
than the honour to be obtained--his own character for bravery having
been long established. Young hunters might do so for the sake of
proudly wearing the claws--one of the ornaments most esteemed by an
Indian chief--round his neck. Although Kane's gun had two barrels, and
Francois had his rifle, they knew it was ten chances to one they would
not kill him in time to prevent a hand-to-hand encounter. The bear
walked on, looking at them now and then, but seeming to treat them with
contempt.

Some years before this, a party of ten Canadian voyageurs, on a trade
excursion in the neighbourhood of the mountains, were quietly seated
round a blazing fire, eating a hearty dinner of deer, when a large,
half-famished bear cautiously approached the group from behind a
chestnut-tree. Before they were aware of his presence, he sprang across
the fire, seized one of the men, who had a well-finished bone in his
hand, round the waist with his two fore-paws, and ran about fifty yards
on his hind-legs with him before he stopped. The hunter's comrades were
so thunderstruck at the unexpected appearance of such a visitor, and his
sudden retreat with "pauvre" Louisson--the man who had been carried
off--that they for some time lost all presence of mind, and, in a state
of confusion, were running to and fro, each expecting in his turn to be
kidnapped in a similar manner. At length Baptiste Le