ragged wounds and tearing the internal organs all to pieces.

The skin, which weighed over one hundred pounds, was taken to
Bakersfield, and the meat that had not been spoiled by bullets was cut
up and sold to butchers and others. Estimating the total weight from
the portions that were actually tested on the scales, the butchers
figured that Pinto weighed 1100 pounds. The 1800 and 2000-pound bears
have all been weighed by the fancy of the men who killed them, and the
farther away they have been from the scales the more they have weighed.

There is no other case on record of a bear that continued fighting with
a smashed skull and pulped brains, although possibly such cases may
have occurred and never found their way into print. Gleason saw Old
Pinto shortly after the fight and examined the head, and there is no
reason to doubt his description of the effect of the bullets.

CHAPTER XIX.

THREE IN A BOAT.

The Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington Territory are full of
bears, and as the inhabitants seldom hunt them, the animals are
disposed to be sociable and neighborly and wander about close to the
settlements. Harry Dumont and Rube Fields had a very sociable evening
with a black bear at the Upper Cascades on the Columbia some years ago.
They were crossing in a boat above the falls, when Dumont, sitting in
the stern, pointed out what he said was a deer, swimming the river,
about a hundred yards away. Rube bent to the oars and pulled towards
the head that could just be seen on the water, intending to give Dumont
a chance to knock the deer on the skull with a paddle and tow the
venison ashore. When the bow of the boat ran alongside the head the
supposed deer reached up, caught hold of the boat and clambered aboard
without ceremony. It was a black bear of ordinary size, but it was
large enough to make two men think twice before attacking it with oars.
The bear quietly settled himself on the seat in the bow of the boat and
looked apprehensively at the men, who were so astonished that they did
not know whether to jump overboard or prepare for a fight. As the bear
made no hostile movement they decided not to pick a quarrel. The boat
meanwhile had drifted down stream and got into swift water, and Rube
Fields saw that he must row for all he was worth to avoid going over
the falls, which would be sure death. The bear seemed to realize the
danger and acted as though he was uncertain whether it were better