, and Karl knew that by turning down he would
soon be overtaken, and perhaps hugged to death. He had no weapon--
nothing in his hand but the bottle of red peppers--what could he do?

There was not a moment left for reflection. The bear reared upward with
a savage growl, and rushed forward to the attack. He had almost got his
claws upon the plant-hunter, when the latter mechanically struck forward
with the battle, and, as good luck guided it, hit his assailant fair
upon the snout. A loud smash, and the rattling of glass among the
pebbles, announced the fate of the bottle, and the red peppers, vinegar,
and all, went streaming about the head of the bear.

The brute uttered a scream of terror--such as bears will do when badly
frightened--and, wheeling away from the conflict, headed up the sloping
bank. He succeeded in his climbing better than Karl had done; for, in
the twinkling of an eye, he had reached the top of the slope, and in the
twinkling of another eye would have disappeared among the bushes, had
not Caspar at this moment arrived upon the ground, and with his second
barrel brought him rolling back into the channel.

The bear fell dead almost at Karl's feet, and the latter stepped forward
to examine the carcass. What was his astonishment on perceiving that
what he had taken for a hunch on the bear's back was a brace of young
cubs, that had now rolled off, and were running round the body of their
dam, whining, and snarling, and snapping like a pair of vixens! But
Fritz at this moment rushed forward, and, after a short fierce struggle,
put an end to their lively demonstrations.

Caspar now related that when he and Ossaroo first came in sight of the
bear the cubs were upon the ground playing; but the moment he fired the
first shot--which had not hit the old bear withal--she seized the cubs
one after the other in her mouth, flung them upon her shoulders, and
then made off!

The animal that had fallen before the bullet of Caspar's gun was the
"long-lipped," or sloth-bear (_Ursus labiatus_). The first name has
been given to this species on account of the capability it possesses of
protruding the cartilage of its nose and its lips far in advance of its
teeth, and by this means seizing its food. It is called "sloth" bear,
because when first known it was supposed to belong to the sloths; and
its long shaggy hair, its rounded back, and the apparently unwieldy and
deformed contour of its whole body, gave some colo