Boone.  Fortunately, the black bear, unlike the grizzly, very seldom uses his claws and teeth in fighting, contenting himself with smothering his victim.  Boone disentangled his left arm, and with his knife dealt a furious blow upon the snout of the animal, which, smarting with pain, released his hold.  The snout is the only vulnerable part in an old black bear.  Even at forty yards, the ball of a rifle will flatten against his skull, and if in any other part of the body, it will scarcely produce any serious effect.

Boone, aware of this, and not daring to risk another hug, darted away from the cabin.  The bear, now quite angry, followed and overtook him near the fence.  Fortunately the clouds were clearing away, and the moon threw light sufficient to enable the hunter to strike with a more certain aim:  chance also favoured him; he found on the ground one of the rails made of the blue ash, very heavy, and ten feet in length; he dropped his knife and tomahawk, and seizing the rail, he renewed the fight with caution, for it had now become a struggle for life or death.

Had it been a bull or a panther, they would have had their bones shivered to pieces by the tremendous blows which Boone dealt upon his adversary with all the strength of despair; but Bruin is by nature an admirable fencer, and, in spite of his unwieldy shape, there is not in the world an animal whose motions are more rapid in a close encounter.  Once or twice he was knocked down by the force of the blows, but generally he would parry them with a wonderful agility.  At last, he succeeded in seizing the other end of the rail, and dragged it towards him with irresistible force.  Both man and beast fell, Boone rolling to the place where he had dropped his arms, while the bear advanced upon him; the moment was a critical one, but Boone was accustomed to look at and brave death under every shape, and with a steady hand he buried his tomahawk in the snout of his enemy, and, turning round, he rushed to his cabin, believing he would have time to secure the door.  He closed the latch, and applied his shoulders to it; but it was of no avail, the terrible brute dashed in head foremost, and tumbled in the room with Boone and the fragments of the door.  The two foes rose and stared at each other; Boone had nothing left but his knife, but Bruin was tottering and unsteady, and Boone felt that the match was more equal:  once more they closed.

A few hours after sunrise, Captain Finn, returning home from the Legislature at Little Rock, called upon his friend, and, to his horror, found him apparently lifeless on the floor, and alongside of him, the body of the bear.  Boone soon recovered, and found that the lucky blow which had saved him from being crashed to death had buried the whole blade of his knife, through the left eye, in the very brain of the animal[29].

[Footnote 29:  The black bear does not grow to any great size in the eastern and northern parts of America, but in Arkansas and the adjacent States it becomes, from its size and strength, almost as formidable an antagonist as a grizzly bear.  It is very common to find them eight hundred weight, but sometimes they weigh above a thousand pounds.]