I had just passed one of these narrow gorges on my right and was approaching a second, when I noticed an opposite pass on my left. I cautiously crept along the rock to be able to have a peep into this pass, and see whether there was any game in it, and was only a few yards from the angle of the wall, when suddenly a small bear, which I took for a one-year-old black bear, though it looked different, sprang from the pass on my right and hastened up the opposite one. As I said, it appeared to me rather smaller than a one-year-old black bear, but there was no time for reflection, and its skin might be of great service to me. I raised my rifle, fired, and saw the bear roll over the stones like a ball, uttering plaintive cries like those of a child; at the same instant the hasty bounds of a heavy animal reached my ears simultaneously with an awful roar. It became dark at the angle of the precipice before me, and the upright gigantic form of a grizzly bear appeared only a few paces from me. I fell back a step in horror, involuntarily stretched out my rifle to keep the bear off, and at the same moment saw Trusty fly past me under its belly. The rifle exploded--a fearful blow hurled me back several yards against the precipice--my eyes flashed fire--I lost my senses and fell. I must have lain here about half an hour, and on opening my eyes again felt that my forehead was wet and cold. I saw that Trusty was standing over me with his honest face and licking me. I got up and sprang on one side in horror, for close to me lay the shaggy body of the bear, with widely opened throat, from which a stream of black, curdled blood ran under me. It was a she bear whose three months' old cub I had shot, and she had wished to avenge its death. My guardian angel had saved me, for my bullet, which entered its throat and passed through the skull, had killed the bear on the spot. In its fall it had torn the rifle from my hand, and forced me back so violently that I had struck my head against the rock, and the pain deprived me of consciousness. As on so many previous occasions, an invisible hand had again saved me from a terrible danger, whose extent I could appreciate now that I saw the monster lying before me. I stood motionless reflecting on my position, when the hoot of a passing owl reminded me that night had set in. While reloading, I remembered that this was the pairing time of the bears, and that very possibly male bears would be following the female, and hence this was the most dangerous spot I could select. I went up to the cub, threw it on my back, and hurried down the gorge to my camping place, where I at once made a blaze, the safest and only way of protecting oneself against the four-footed denizens of these regions. I now saw for the first time that brave Trusty was covered with blood, and had three severe wounds on his back, dealt him by the bear. Two of them I at once sewed up and washed them repeatedly with the clear cold water by which I was camped.