the bear should succeed in coming up
with the canoe, he would either mount into it, and drive all of them
into the water; or, what was more probable, he would upset the craft,
and spill the whole party out of it. In either case, there would be the
danger of coming in contact with his claws; and that, they knew, was the
danger of death itself.

The hunters were all three busy reloading their guns; and getting ready
to fire before the enemy should be up to them.

They were not in time, however. With the motion of the boat, and the
constrained attitudes in which it placed them, the loading was a slow
process; and, before any of the three had a bullet down, the bear was
close astern. Only Ivan had a barrel loaded; and this, unfortunately,
was with small shot, which he had been keeping for waterfowl. He fired
it, nevertheless, right into the teeth of the pursuer; but, instead of
stopping him, it only increased his rage, and roused him to make still
greater efforts to overtake the canoe.

Pouchskin, in despair, threw down his gun, and seized upon an axe, that
by good luck had been brought in the boat. With this firmly grasped in
his hands, and kneeling in the stern, he waited the approach of the
infuriated swimmer.

The bear had got close up to the boat--in fact was within the length of
his own body of touching it. Believing himself now near enough, he made
one of his prodigious bounds, and launched himself forward. His sharp
claws rattled against the birch-bark, tearing a large flake from the
craft. Had this not given way, his hold would have been complete; and
the boat would, in all likelihood, have been dragged, stern foremost,
under water. But the failure of his clutch brought the head of the
monster once more on a level with the surface; and before he could raise
it to make a second spring, the great wedge of steel descended upon his
crown, and went crashing through his skull.

Almost in the same instant, he was seen to turn over in the water; his
limbs moved only with a spasmodic action; he gave a feeble kick or two
with his long hind legs; and then his carcass floated along the surface,
like a mass of white foam.

It was soon secured, and drawn out upon the bank--for the purpose of
being stripped of its snow-white robe.

Our young hunters would have been contented to have left the others
alone--neither the female nor her cubs being required by them. But the
voyageurs--who were desirous of obtaining t