his way, drew in his tongue, ceased his violent respiration; and, raising his head on high, snuffed the air on all sides, and then placing his nose close to the ground, kept it there for some little time. He was eighty or ninety yards from the spot where we stood. As again his head was lifted up, his small tuft of a tail moved quickly from right to left, revealing his turbulence and hesitation.

"Don't let us all fire together," hinted P——, in an under tone; "but let those Norwegians blaze away first, as we don't know anything about their skill."

"Then, I'll follow," said R——.

"And my pistol next," I interceded.

"Very well; and I will try my luck last," said P——. "Are all ready?"

"All right," we both answered, and the two Norwegians assented with a nod.

The bear kept moving gradually near and nearer to the bait, and approached within a very short space of the rock where we lay hid, thickly surrounded by the branches of the fir and beech.

"Fire!" breathed P——, lowly.

One guide, elevating his gigantic rifle, pulled the trigger. A tremendous report was one result, and the total disappearance of the Norwegian was the other; the fowling-piece having kicked him completely off the edge of the rock into our natural moat, the bog. We heard the splash of the man's body below, and thought, at first, he was killed by the bursting of his rifle; but when his companion, who had leaped down to his assistance, helped him, reeking and muddy, from the dominions of the tadpole, and placed him, uninjured, though stunned, on his legs, we could not resist a burst of merriment at his countenance of unmitigated disgust, as the liquid filth oozed from the tips of his dependent fingers.

The sound of our laughter alarmed Bruin, and revealed us to his sight, and, rising immediately on his hind-legs, he commenced moving towards the Norwegians, and hissing like a hot coal dipped in cold water.

"Hang the mud, jump up!" exclaimed P——.

"Grin and bear it, old fellow," and, saying so, R—— quietly levelled his rifle, with some misgiving, for it was of Norwegian manufacture, and fired at the animal. Poor Bruin received the ball in his left fore-leg; and, with a piteous moan, he instantly assumed his natural position on all fours, and hissed and growled, and licked the blood which streamed from the wound. The animal, nothing daunted, even in this extremity, still moved towards us with great ferocity; and, as he came within forty feet, P—— lodged a second bullet in his loin. The pain exasperated him to the quick, and he rushed furiously towards the rock.

"Where's the powder?" shouted P——.

"I don't know," echoed from every one. No powder could be found; the Norwegian having taken possession of the porter bottle, and placed it in his pocket, had doubtlessly fallen with it into the quagmire; and they had now absconded.

"Don't let him get up!" continued P—— emphatically.

"Not to my knowledge," R—— replied, assuming a long recognised attitude of great military defence.

I now presented my rusty old horse-pistol at Bruin's head, at an interval sufficient under the circumstances, of three yards, and fired it; when, whether from having received its contents, or from alarm at its loud report, the bear rolled over on his back; but, recovering himself in a moment, he made an awkward spring, short of the rock, and received, in commemoration of his false agility, a blow on the head from the butt-end of R——'s rifle. The shock removed R——'s glazed cap from his head, and it fell, bounding from the rock, close to Bruin's nose. Mistaking, no doubt, this ingenious covering for R——'s especial skull, the bear, infuriated, flew at it impetuously, and seizing it in his mouth, shook it as an angry dog would have shaken a rag.

The blood was now fastly trickling down his tongue, which hung from his mouth, and through his side at every pulsation, spouted, smoking, the warm element of life. Gradually, slowly, yet reluctantly, his head drooped towards the ground, and, faint from loss of blood, the animal, tottering from side to side, sate, weakened as he was, upright on his haunches, showing his teeth, and growling until the coagulated blood, accumulating in his throat, would make him cough, and threatened suffocation.

Descending from the rock, we came near to the dying creature, and, striving to reach one of us, he lifted his paw, and, as he did so, lost his balance, and tumbled over on the earth. Although, as we supposed, on the point of death, the gallant brute still growled, and attempted to rise again and renew the fight, but complete exhaustion denied what his courage prompted.

The Norwegians now reappeared, and one of them knelt down to remove R——'s cap from the bear's clutches; but the undaunted Bruin, as if desirous of giving his countryman a final embrace, seized him round the neck, and drew him tightly to his clotted breast. We were, of course, alarmed a second time for the man's safety, and by great exertions tried to release him from his perilous condition; but our efforts were not a little crippled by the legs of the Norwegian, which he flung violently about at every possible tangent; and one arm, moving with the rapid oscillating motion of a steam-engine, brought the fist in sharp contact with the other Norwegian's chest, and threw him, head over heels, into the identical pool whence he had himself but lately escaped.