d
among the branches, about thirty feet from the ground, while my baffled
antagonist was walking round and round it, uttering growls of rage, and
stripping the bark from the tree with his terrible claws.

During my hasty flight I had slung my bow across my back, and had
fortunately preserved it safely. My quiver, well filled with arrows,
being attached to my person by a belt, I was well supplied with
ammunition; and thinking it about time to commence offensive operations,
I secured myself to the tree with strips of leather cut from my shoulder
belt, and commenced trying my skill as an archer, with the bear as a
living and movable target. Owing to my cramped position in the tree, my
aim was necessarily uncertain, and many of my shafts went wide of the
mark; still, I did succeed in hitting the brute several times, but with
no other effect than to increase his rage and apparent determination to
watch until he should tire me out, and overcome by fatigue or sleep, I
might fall from the tree, and thus become an easy victim. Seeing this, I
desisted after a while, and settled myself down to wait as patiently as
I might for him to tire of his watch, or for relief of some sort to
arrive. Perhaps an hour had elapsed when I heard a noise on the opposite
side of the clearing, and on looking in that direction I saw Wakometkla
just emerging from the woods. The bear saw him at the same instant, and
abandoning his post of sentinel, rushed towards his new enemy. The old
Indian waited long enough to discharge three or four arrows with great
rapidity, and then ascended the nearest tree with a rapidity quite
surprising in a man of his age and build. Two of his shots had taken
effect--that is, they had hit the bear; but they caused no diminution of
his energy or fierceness. He rushed to the base of the tree, and vented
his rage in stripping the bark from its trunk. Finding that his intended
prey had escaped him, he soon desisted from this occupation, and
returning to the carcass of the "big horn," began devouring it, at the
same time keeping a constant watch upon our movements, so as to preclude
the possibility of our slipping away. In spite of the uncomfortable
nature of our position, I could not help laughing at the ludicrous
picture we presented, perched in the trees like a couple of monkeys,
hardly daring to move lest we might lose our hold and tumble into the
clutches of our unpleasant neighbor. The bear soon finished his repast,
indeed