dick's first fight with a grizzly--adventure with adeer--a surprise.
there is no animal in all the land so terrible anddangerous as the grizzly bear. not only is he thelargest of the species in america, but he is the fiercest,the strongest, and the most tenacious of life--facts whichare so well understood that few of the western hunterslike to meet him single-handed, unless they happento be first-rate shots; and the indians deem the encounterso dangerous that to wear a collar composedof the claws of a grizzly bear of his own killing iscounted one of the highest honours to which a youngwarrior can attain.
the grizzly bear resembles the brown bear of europe,but it is larger, and the hair is long, the points beingof a paler shade. about the head there is a considerablemixture of gray hair, giving it the "grizzly" appearancefrom which it derives its name. the claws aredirty white, arched, and very long, and so strong thatwhen the animal strikes with its paw they cut like achisel. these claws are not embedded in the paw, asis the case with the cat, but always project far beyondthe hair, thus giving to the foot a very ungainly appearance.
they are not sufficiently curved to enable thegrizzly bear to climb trees, like the black and brownbears; and this inability on their part is often the onlyhope of the pursued hunter, who, if he succeeds inascending a tree, is safe, for the time at least, from thebear's assaults. but "caleb" is a patient creature, andwill often wait at the foot of the tree for many hoursfor his victim.
the average length of his body is about nine feet,but he sometimes attains to a still larger growth.
caleb is more carnivorous in his habits than otherbears; but, like them, he does not object to indulgeoccasionally in vegetable diet, being partial to the bird-cherry,the choke-berry, and various shrubs. he hasa sweet tooth, too, and revels in honey--when he canget it.
the instant the grizzly bear beheld dick varleystanding in his path, he rose on his hind legs and madea loud hissing noise, like a man breathing quick, butmuch harsher. to this crusoe replied by a deep growl,and showing the utmost extent of his teeth, gums andall; and dick cocked both barrels of his rifle.
to say that dick varley felt no fear would be simplyto make him out that sort of hero which does not existin nature--namely, a perfect hero. he did feel asensationas if his bowels had suddenly melted into water!
let not our reader think the worse of dick for this.
there is not a man living who, having met with a hugegrizzly bear for the first time in his life in a wild, solitaryplace, all alone, has not experienced some suchsensation. there was no cowardice in this feeling.
fear is not cowardice. acting in a wrong and contemptiblemanner because of our fear is cowardice.
it is said that wellington or napoleon, we forgetwhich, once stood watching the muster of the men whowere to form the forlorn-hope in storming a citadel.
there were many brave, strong, stalwart men there, inthe prime of life, and flushed with the blood of highhealth and courage. there were also there a few stern-browedmen of riper years, who stood perfectly silent,with lips compressed, and as pale as death. "yonderveterans," said the general, pointing to these soldiers,"are men whose courage i can depend on; they knowwhat they are going to, the others don't!" yes, theseyoung soldiers very probably were brave; the otherscertainly were.
dick varley stood for a few seconds as if thunderstruck,while the bear stood hissing at him. then theliquefaction of his interior ceased, and he felt a glowof fire gush through his veins. now dick knew wellenough that to fly from a grizzly bear was the sure andcertain way of being torn to pieces, as when taken thusby surprise they almost invariably follow a retreatingenemy. he also knew that if he stood where he was,perfectly still, the bear would get uncomfortable underhis stare, and would retreat from him. but he neitherintended to run away himself nor to allow the bear todo so; he intended to kill it, so he raised his rifle quickly,"drew a bead," as the hunters express it, on the bear'sheart, and fired.
it immediately dropped on its fore legs and rushedat him.
"back, crusoe! out of the way, pup!" shouted dick, ashis favourite was about to spring forward.
the dog retired, and dick leaped behind a tree. asthe bear passed he gave it the contents of the secondbarrel behind the shoulder, which brought it down; butin another moment it rose and again rushed at him.
dick had no time to load, neither had he time to springup the thick tree beside which he stood, and the rockynature of the ground out of which it grew rendered itimpossible to dodge round it. his only resource wasflight; but where was he to fly to? if he ran alongthe open track, the bear would overtake him in a fewseconds. on the right was a sheer precipice one hundredfeet high; on the left was an impenetrable thicket. indespair he thought for an instant of clubbing his rifleand meeting the monster in close conflict; but the utterhopelessness of such an effort was too apparent to beentertained for a moment. he glanced up at the overhangingcliffs. there were one or two rents and projectionsclose above him. in the twinkling of an eyehe sprang up and grasped a ledge of about an inchbroad, ten or twelve feet up, to which he clung whilehe glanced upward. another projection was withinreach; he gained it, and in a few seconds he stood upona ledge about twenty feet up the cliff, where he had justroom to plant his feet firmly.
without waiting to look behind, he seized his powder-hornand loaded one barrel of his rifle; and well was itfor him that his early training had fitted him to do thiswith rapidity, for the bear dashed up the precipice afterhim at once. the first time it missed its hold, and fellback with a savage growl; but on the second attemptit sunk its long claws into the fissures between the rocks,and ascended steadily till within a foot of the placewhere dick stood.
at this moment crusoe's obedience gave way beforea sense of dick's danger. uttering one of his lion-likeroars, he rushed up the precipice with such violencethat, although naturally unable to climb, he reached andseized the bear's flank, despite his master's stern orderto "keep back," and in a moment the two rolled downthe face of the rock together, just as dick completedloading.
knowing that one stroke of the bear's paw would becertain death to his poor dog, dick leaped from hisperch, and with one bound reached the ground at thesame moment with the struggling animals, and closebeside them, and, before they had ceased rolling, heplaced the muzzle of his rifle into the bear's ear, andblew out its brains.
crusoe, strange to say, escaped with only one scratchon the side. it was a deep one, but not dangerous, andgave him but little pain at the time, although it causedhim many a smart for some weeks after.
thus happily ended dick's first encounter with agrizzly bear; and although, in the course of his wildlife, he shot many specimens of "caleb," he used to saythat "he an' pup were never so near goin' under as onthe day he dropped that bar!"having refreshed himself with a long draught froma neighbouring rivulet, and washed crusoe's wound,dick skinned the bear on the spot.
"we chawed him up that time, didn't we, pup?"said dick, with a smile of satisfaction, as he surveyedhis prize.
crusoe looked up and assented to this.
"gave us a hard tussle, though; very nigh sent usboth under, didn't he, pup?"crusoe agreed entirely, and, as if the remark remindedhim of honourable scars, he licked his wound.
"ah, pup!" cried dick, sympathetically, "does't hurtye, eh, poor dog?"hurt him? such a question! no, he should thinknot; better ask if that leap from the precipice hurtyourself.
so crusoe might have said, but he didn't; he tookno notice of the remark whatever.
"we'll cut him up now, pup," continued dick.
"the skin'll make a splendid bed for you an' me o'
nights, and a saddle for charlie."dick cut out all the claws of the bear by the roots,and spent the remainder of that night in cleaning themand stringing them on a strip of leather to form anecklace. independently of the value of these enormousclaws (the largest as long as a man's middle finger) asan evidence of prowess, they formed a remarkably gracefulcollar, which dick wore round his neck ever afterwith as much pride as if he had been a pawnee warrior.
when it was finished he held it out at arm's-length,and said, "crusoe, my pup, ain't ye proud of it? i'lltell ye what it is, pup, the next time you an' i floorcaleb, i'll put the claws round your neck, an' make yewear em ever arter, so i will."the dog did not seem quite to appreciate this pieceof prospective good fortune. vanity had no place inhis honest breast, and, sooth to say, it had not a largeplace in that of his master either, as we may well grantwhen we consider that this first display of it was on theoccasion of his hunter's soul having at last realized itsbrightest day-dream.
dick's dangers and triumphs seemed to accumulateon him rather thickly at this place, for on the verynext day he had a narrow escape of being killed by adeer. the way of it was this.
having run short of meat, and not being particularlyfond of grizzly bear steak, he shouldered his rifle andsallied forth in quest of game, accompanied by crusoe,whose frequent glances towards his wounded sideshowed that, whatever may have been the case the daybefore, it "hurt" him now.
they had not gone far when they came on the trackof a deer in the snow, and followed it up till they spieda magnificent buck about three hundred yards off,standing in a level patch of ground which was everywheresurrounded either by rocks or thicket. it was along shot, but as the nature of the ground rendered itimpossible for dick to get nearer without being seen,he fired, and wounded the buck so badly that he cameup with it in a few minutes. the snow had drifted inthe place where it stood bolt upright, ready for a spring,so dick went round a little way, crusoe following, tillhe was in a proper position to fire again. just as hepulled the trigger, crusoe gave a howl behind him anddisturbed his aim, so that he feared he had missed; butthe deer fell, and he hurried towards it. on comingup, however, the buck sprang to its legs, rushed at himwith its hair bristling, knocked him down in the snow,and deliberately commenced stamping him to death.
dick was stunned for a moment, and lay quite still,so the deer left off pommelling him, and stood lookingat him. but the instant he moved it plunged at himagain and gave him another pounding, until he wascontent to lie still. this was done several times, anddick felt his strength going fast. he was surprisedthat crusoe did not come to his rescue, and once hecleared his mouth and whistled to him; but as thedeer gave him another pounding for this, he didn'tattempt it again. he now for the first time bethoughthim of his knife, and quietly drew it from his belt;but the deer observed the motion, and was on himagain in a moment. dick, however, sprang up on hisleft elbow, and making several desperate thrusts upward,succeeded in stabbing the animal to the heart.
rising and shaking the snow from his garments, hewhistled loudly to crusoe, and, on listening, heard himwhining piteously. he hurried to the place whencethe sound came, and found that the poor dog had falleninto a deep pit or crevice in the rocks, which had beenconcealed from view by a crust of snow, and he wasnow making frantic but unavailing efforts to leap out.
dick soon freed him from his prison by means ofhis belt, which he let down for the dog to grasp, andthen returned to camp with as much deer-meat as hecould carry. dear meat it certainly was to him, for ithad nearly cost him his life, and left him all black andblue for weeks after. happily no bones were broken,so the incident only confined him a day to his encampment.
soon after this the snow fell thicker than ever, andit became evident that an unusually early winter wasabout to set in among the mountains. this was aterrible calamity, for if the regular snow of winter setin, it would be impossible for him either to advance orretreat.
while he was sitting on his bearskin by the camp-fireone day, thinking anxiously what he should do, andfeeling that he must either make the attempt to escapeor perish miserably in that secluded spot, a strange, unwontedsound struck upon his ear, and caused both himand crusoe to spring violently to their feet and listen.
could he be dreaming?--it seemed like the sound ofhuman voices. for a moment he stood with his eyesrivetted on the ground, his lips apart, and his nostrilsdistended, as he listened with the utmost intensity.
then he darted out and bounded round the edge of arock which concealed an extensive but narrow valleyfrom his view, and there, to his amazement, he beheld aband of about a hundred human beings advancing onhorseback slowly through the snow.
