Judge of our
surprise when the stranger proved to be an enormous bear!"
"He was seated on his hams, and what we thought his signals, were his
raising himself on his hind legs to pull down the berries from a high
bush, and with his paws full, sitting down again to eat them at his
leisure.
"'Thus he continued daintily enjoying his ripe fruit in the posture some
lapdogs are taught to assume while eating. On we pulled, and forgot our
hunger and weariness the bear still continued breakfasting.
"'We got as close on shore as the shoals would permit, and John (one of
the Indians), taking my double barrelled gun, leaped into the water, gun
in hand, and gained the beach. Some dead brushwood hid the bear from
John's sight, but from the canoe we could see both John and the bear.
"'The bear now discovered us, and advanced towards us, and John, not
seeing him for the bush, ran along the beach towards him. The weariness
from pulling all night, and having eaten no food, made me lose my presence
of mind, for I now remembered that the gun was only loaded with duck shot,
and you might as well meet a bear with a gun loaded with pease.
"'John was in danger, and we strained at our paddles to get to his
assistance, but as the bear was a very large one, and as we had no other
firearms we should have been but poor helps to John in the hug of a
wounded bear.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155