when the great carcass was being hauled up to the branch,
that the lost knife made its appearance. Then, to the astonishment of
the young hunters, as well as to Pouchskin himself, the knife was seen
sticking in the shoulder of the bear! There it had been when the haft
slipped from his hands, and there had it remained. No doubt that stab
would have given the bear his death-blow; but still more fatal had been
the bullet from the rifle of Alexis, which had passed through Bruin's
brain, crushing his skull like a shell!

The skinning of the animal was accomplished with great care; for the
coat was one of the finest, and the boys knew with what interest it
would be regarded on its arrival at the palace Grodonoff. They spared
no pains, therefore, in removing it from the carcass; and after the work
was finished, it was neatly folded up, tied with the rope, and placed
like a knapsack on Pouchskin's shoulders.

Of the carcass they took no heed; but leaving it to the wolves, the
gluttons, or any other carnivorous creatures that might chance to stray
that way, they turned back up the ravine; and, striking off on a path
that led towards the tent of the Laplander, reached their smoky quarters
in good time for dinner.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

RINGING THE BEAR.

The bear thus killed was the true _ursus arctos_, or brown bear--the
latter name being given to him from the colour of his fur, which, in
ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, is a uniform brown. The name,
however, is not appropriate, since there are other brown bears belonging
to very different species.

Having secured his robe, as we have seen, the next call of our hunters
was to obtain a skin from the body of his black brother. They were well
aware that this would not be so easy of accomplishment, from the simple
fact, that the _ursus niger_, or "European black bear," is one of the
rarest of animals--indeed, so few of them are obtained, that out of a
thousand skins of the European bear that pass through the hands of the
furriers, not more than two or three will be found to be of the black
variety.

It is true that they were just in the country where they would be most
likely to fall in with one; for it is only in the northern zone of
Europe (and Asia also) where the black ones are found. This variety is
not encountered in the southern ranges of mountains in the Alps,
Pyrenees, and Carpathians. Whether this black bear is a distinct
species was not a question