Page 132

129

animal, and leading him into a noiseless pursuit,
Check completely his advance.
While thus occupied guarding her poor
wounded cub, Hans came up, and each
of us placed a well directed rifle ball
in her side. Still she staggeringly stood
before her young one and after receiving
another shot from myself as well as
our carpenter received her final wound
nearly in contact with her person.
Nine balls were found in skinning the
carcass, the animal was of medium size
very lean and without a particle of food
in her stomach. Hunger must have added
to her boldness. The mammary glands
seemed copiously supplied, but not even
the intestinal omentum contained their
fatty appendages. No blubber was found.
The nett weight of the cleansed carcase
was 300 pounds that of the entire animal
650 pounds, her length but seven
feet eight inches.

Experience has taught me that bears in
this lean condition are much more palatable
for food. The impregnation of fatty
oil through the cellular tissue makes
a well fed bear nearly uneatable. The
flesh of a famished bear although less
nutritious as a fuel [diet?], is generally
sweet and tender.

The little cub was larger than the
adjective implied. She rose above our dogs
and weighed 114 lbs. As was [Like] the case
of with Morton's bear in Kennedy Channel
she jumped upon the dead carcase of
her mother and raised a woeful
yet pugnaceous lamentation over her
bleeding wounds. She repelled our