y were
in reality the tracks of a bear--though much smaller than those they had
followed in Lapland. They were quite fresh--in fact, so recently did
they appear to have been made, that both at the same time, and by an
involuntary impulse, raised their eyes from the ground and glanced
around them; as if they expected to see the bear himself.

No such animal was in sight, however. It was quite probable he had been
on the ground, at their first coming up to the lake; but the report of
Ivan's gun had alarmed him, and he had made off into the woods. This
was quite probable.

"What a pity," reflected Ivan, "that I didn't leave the eagle alone! We
might have got sight of Master Bruin, and given him the shot instead.
And now," added he, "what's to be done? There's no snow,--therefore we
can't track the brute. The mud bank ends here, and he's gone off it,
the way he came? Of course he wouldn't be out yonder among those logs?
He wouldn't have taken shelter there, would he?"

As Ivan spoke, he pointed to a little peninsula that jutted out into the
lake, some twenty or thirty yards beyond the spot where they were
standing. It was joined to the mainland by a narrow neck or isthmus of
mud; but at the end towards the water there was a space of several yards
covered with dead trees--that had been floated thither in the floods,
and now lay high and dry, piled irregularly upon one another.

Alexis looked in the direction of this pile as Ivan pointed it out.

"I'm not so sure of that," he answered, after scrutinising the logs.
"It's a likely enough place for an animal to lurk. He might be there?"

"Let us go and see, then!" said Ivan. "If he's there he can't escape
us, without our having a shot at him; and you say that these American
bears are much easier killed than ours. The South Americans were so,
certainly. I hope their northern brothers may die as easy."

"Not all," rejoined Alexis. "We may expect some tough struggles when we
come to the great grizzly, and to him of the polar regions; but the
black bears are, as you conjecture, not so difficult to deal with. If
wounded, however, they will show fight; and, though their teeth and
claws are less dangerous than the others, they can give a man a most
uncomfortable hug, I have heard. But let us go, as you say. If not
yonder, he must have taken to the woods. In that case there is no way
of following him up, except by dogs; and for these we must go back to
the house.