ing back over one shoulder, and reaching out his 

 paw behind him, he put on brakes; but as this did 

 not check him sufficiently, he whirled about and 

 slid flat on his stomach, digging in with both fin- 

 gers and toes until he slowed down. 



Then, sitting up on his haunches again, he set 

 himself in motion by pushing along with rapid 

 backward strokes of both fore paws. He coasted on 

 toward the bottom. In going down a steep pitch of 

 one hundred feet or more he either quite lost con- 

 trol of himself or let go from sheer enthusiasm. He 

 rolled, tumbled, and slid recklessly along. Reaching 

 the bottom, he rose on hind feet, looked about him 

 for a few seconds, and then climbed halfway up 

 the course for another coast. At the end of this 

 merry sliding he landed on an open flat in the edge 

 of the woods. 



As it was nearly dark and I should not be able to 

 see or follow the bear much longer, I concluded to 

 roll a rock from the ledge down near him. Twice I 

 had noticed that he had paid no attention to rocks 

 that broke loose above and rolled near him. But he 

 heard this rock start and rose up to look at it. It 

 stopped a few yards from him. He snifl^ed the air 

 with nose pointing toward it and then went up and 



127 



