rue. The other two men fired at him, and
missed; at the last fire he bolted into the
road, then I got a clear shot, and had my nag
not moved, that shot would have finished
him. Pomerin and your man Harry have
followed the other bear. I hope they are all
safe."

He had left his horse, and we penetrated a
good way into the forest, accompanied by a few
men, Saunderson leading. So we came to a
glade almost bare of trees. In the centre of
this, he said, there was a large deep dell half a
mile across, the sides sloping into the centre,
and dense with trees all over. "Here it is;
and as I live here's the horses tied to a tree.
Living or dead they are here."

Although the foliage had fallen, the place
looked dark and dismal, and just as we reached
it two shots were heard in the hollow, the one
a moment or two after the other. Down we
rushed, sliding among the damp old leaves, and
holding on by tree-trunks and branches. At
length, in answer to our shouts, we heard a
halloa repeated. This led us to the very bottom
of the immense pit, and there stood Harry,
fast in the embrace of the young Russian.
Their guns were on the ground, and the bear
lying dead beside them. As soon as Pomerin
saw me, he sprang forward, embraced, and kissed
me with emotion. He was much excited, and
in answer to our questions, told us that, not
thinking what he was about, he followed the
bear down into this awful hole:

"I had fired twice at him, and hit him once,
but not fatally. The villain seemed to know
that both barrels were empty, for he turned at
bay on this spot, a fine place for a game at hide-
and-seek with a bear. I dodged him round and
round the trees a good while, and having no
time to load, threw my gun down. At last he
got me in a corner, from which I could not
move but in one direction, and that was into
his arms. You see this tree; behind it is, you
perceive, sheer cliff, on both sides a gulley.
Well, I got behind the tree; the bear advanced,
sure of his prey, no doubt. I stared him
steadily in the face as he came on, but on he
came; he was within five yards of me. I drew
my knife; I had no hope of success; for, see,
he is an enormous grizzly. Ah, the horror of
that moment! I was just waiting his next
step, and my eyes were dancing with
firesparks, when I heard a voice from the cliff
behind me, 'Lie down on yer belly, flat—quick;
and I'll give the buffer somethink to eat harder
nor gentlemen's flesh.' Ah! God bless my
grandfather for teaching me the English language!
These words were the sweetest I ever heard in
my life. Down I went, flat on the ground;
the bear had taken a step or two forward, and
was looking up to the cliff, for I kept my eyes
on him. I could now almost feel his breath
on my face, when, in a moment, ping, whirr,
then in another moment, ping, whirr, went the
bullets, ripping over me, right into the bear's
head. Over he went, rolling down the steep.
Down jumped my preserver to my side, and
I've been hugging him like a bear ever since."

He turned to repeat the dose, but Harry set
off with a "No more o' that ere."

"When we returned to the scene of the main
slaughter, we found the road filled with
peasants—those who had been beating up the game,
those who had been shooting it, the dog and
horse attendants, and a crowd of idlers from
the village. The game—consisting of the two
bears, four cubs, two deer or elks, five large
and two small wolves, hares, rabbits, and other
small animals in abundance—was given over to
the peasants, except only the two bears, which
were ordered to be taken to the count's
residence. I should have expected that the
peasants would have made some demonstration of
joy at the deliverance of their young master,
which was known to them all by this time, but
nothing of the kind took place. A few of them,
indeed, came forward and kissed his hand, and
said, "Thank God, he was safe," but these, I
could perceive, were his domestic retainers and
attendants. They were better dressed and
cleaner than the generality of the peasants, and
looked like the pampered and favoured menials
that they were. Amongst the others, I in vain
looked for any expressions of interest. Here
was the raw material, and in the right spot for
studying it. The excitement of the sport, in
which every one might be expected to share
to some degree, did not seem to have ignited
in these people one spark of emotion. There
was nothing to remind me of the peasantry of
my own happy land, even in their worst times.
I saw no smiling happy faces, no sparkling glad
eyes, no manly blunt fellow officiously pressing
forward to to be taken notice of, no division
of class into farmers and farmers' men, traders,
and ploughmen, no evidence at all of degrees
in the social scale, no appearance whatever of a
thriving happy or contented ignorance, even
among the serfs, no pride of clanship in the
daring courage and appearance of their chief.
Yet he appeared to me to have—in fact, I
know he possessed—all that was requisite to
call it forth had it been there. No. They
showed themselves, as we moved forward and
amongst them, stolid, apathetic and listless.
Caps came off, certainly, and way was made
for us with alacrity. But if they had any feelings
at all they managed very cunningly to
hide them. Their faces were in general good
in contour, and their individual features regular,
some of them handsome. The out-door
workers were brown or swarthy, and those
who attended the in-door manufactories, pale
and sallow. As to height, bone and muscle, they
seemed very fairly developed. The Russian
peasant men are, indeed, the finest in the country,
many of them models of manly shape and beauty.
One thing struck me as very remarkable, the
brilliant whiteness and regularity of their teeth.
They were, as a rule, white as the purest ivory,
and perfect in form. This is ascribed, I find,
to the eating of black bread. Yet,
notwithstanding all these favourable points, the