On the day in question he had met a couple of
mining prospectors and was travelling with them, when a grisly crossed
his path. The old hunter immediately ran after it, rapidly gaining, as
the bear did not hurry when it saw itself pursued, but slouched slowly
forwards, occasionally turning its head to grin and growl. It soon went
into a dense grove of young spruce, and as the hunter reached the edge
it charged fiercely out. He fired one hasty shot, evidently wounding the
animal, but not seriously enough to stop or cripple it; and as his two
companions ran forward they saw the bear seize him with its wide-spread
jaws, forcing him to the ground. They shouted and fired, and the beast
abandoned the fallen man on the instant and sullenly retreated into the
spruce thicket, whither they dared not follow it. Their friend was at
his last gasp; for the whole side of the chest had been crushed in by
the one bite, the lungs showing between the rent ribs.
Very often, however, a bear does not kill a man by one bite, but after
throwing him lies on him, biting him to death.
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