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quests, he reflected, that, although he had been thus far fortunate, the favourable issue was to be imputed, more to casualty, than to any particular exertion of his own prowess, and concluded, that, if he continued to fell the tree, he might in his turn become the vanquished. He therefore very prudently determined to go home and bring some of his neighbours to his aid. Leaving the bear at the foot of the tree, he departed, and in a short time returned with two men, three dogs, and an additional axe. They soon succeeded in cutting down the tree, which, when falling, struck against another, and broke off about the middle, at the identical spot where the bears lodged. Stunned and confused, the affrighted animals ran so close to one of the men, that he actually put the muzzle of gun close to its shoulder, and shot two balls through its body. The other escaped unhurt, and the dogs pursued the wounded one, till he compelled them to return with their flesh badly lacerated.

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By this time the winter sun had ceased to shed his refulgent beams upon that portion of the globe, and the men deemed it imprudent to follow the tracks until the succeeding morning, when Howay, accompanied by a person of the name of Nowlan, an American by birth, and, of course, wellacquainted with the woods, followed the tracks, having previously provided themselves with a rifle, an axe, about six charges of powder and shot, and bread and meat sufficient for their dinner. This VOL. I.

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was early in the morning of Thursday, the 12th of December. About two o'clock in the afternoon, they were observed by some persons crossing the river Thames, nearly seven miles from the place at which they set off. This was the only intelligence that we had of them for 13 days. After they had been absent for some time, their friends concluded that they must either have perished with hunger and cold, or have been destroyed by the wounded bear. I was strongly of opinion, that they had been frozen to death; for the weather was excessively cold, and they very slightly clothed, without a tinder-box, and totally unprovided with any means of shielding themselves from the inclemency of the weather. I therefore assembled a large party of the settlers pertaining to the townships of London and Nassouri, and proposed that we should stock ourselves with provisions for a few days, and go in quest of the two unfortunate hunters. To this proposal they unanimously agreed; and we set off on the following morning, provided with pocketcompasses and trumpets, a good supply of ammunition, and the necessary apparatus for lighting fires, taking with us some of the best dogs in the country. In the interval between their departure and ours, a partial thaw had taken place, which left not the slightest layer of snow upon the ground,^ except in low and swampy situations. We had therefore no tracks for our direction, nor any idea of the course which Howay and Nowlan had taken, except what we had obtained from the per

sons who saw them crossing the Thames on the day of their departure. We had no very sanguine hopes of finding them; but continued for two days to explore thousands of acres of interminable forests and desolate swamps, apparently untrodden by human foot, yet without the most distant prospect of success. We returned home, having given up all expectation of seeing them again, either living or dead. There was, however, one consideration which administered a portion of comfort to our anxiety: The objects of our search were men without families,-they were strangers in America. They had no parents here, to mourn over their untimely fate; no wives, to lament the hour when they first met, or the moment when they last parted; and no children, to deplore their early orphanage, or to call in vain for their fathers' return. In fact, they were mourned by none but unconnected neighbours.

Thirteen days had now elapsed since the departure of the two adventurous settlers, and all hope of their return had completely vanished. On the morning of Christmas-day, as I was in the act of sending messengers to some of Howay's most intimate acquaintance, to request them to take an inventory of his property, I was informed that he and his companion had returned a few hours before, alive, but in a most wretched condition. When I had recovered in some measure from my surprise, I went to see them; for I felt anxious to hear from themselves an account of their extra

ordinary preservation. Never in my life did I behold such spectacles of woe, poverty and distress. Their emaciated countenances, wild and sunken eyes, withered limbs, and tattered garments, produced such an extraordinary effect upon my' imagination, that I approached them with a degree of timidity for which I was unable to account. I sat down beside them, and for some time fancied that I was holding converse with the ghosts of departed spirits; nor could I entirely banish this idea from my mind during a conversation of several hours. Their preservation appeared to me as signal an interposition of Providence, as any of which I had before heard; and, since it may not prove uninteresting to you, who are unacquainted with the woods and wilds of America, I shall give you a particular account of it. I consider it the more likely to interest you, because it is none of those second-hand stories which usually, as they fly from cabin to cabin, increase prodigiously, until they swell beyond the reasonable bounds of probability, and fearfully invade those illimitable regions,

Where human thought, like human sight,
Fails to pursue their trackless flight.

On the day of their departure, they pursued the bear, which took a North-Western course, for at least twenty miles, and at night stopped upon his track. With great difficulty they lit a fire, having contrived to produce a light by the application of a piece of dry linen to the pan of their gun whilst

flashing it. Thus, before a good fire, they spent the first night, which was exceedingly cold, both supperless and sleepless.

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In the morning they continued the chace, as soon as they had eaten a small piece of bread, the crumb or fragments of their dinner on the preceding day This was equally divided between themselves and their dog. About noon when they had travelled on the track through all its windings and doublings for at least twenty miles, they were unable to distinguish the North from the South, and of course considered themselves lost in the boundless immensity of immeasurable forests. They resolved to pursue the bear no longer, conscious that it would lead them still further into the wilderness, from which they apprehended they could not without difficulty extricate themselves; for the snow was disappearing fast, and the rain continuing to increase. They now recollected, that, in the early part of the day, they had crossed over the track of another bear which they fancied would lead them to the settlements. This they unwisely resolved to follow, consoling themselves with the thought, that if it should not conduct them to the abodes of man, it might lead them to the bear's retreat; and that if they should succeed in killing him in a spot even remote from any settlement, his flesh would afford them nourishment, and his skin a more comfortable couch than the snowcovered deserts on which they had bivouaced the

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