Grizzly Gourmets 73 



four of them engaged in the sport. They must have 

 caught fifteen or twenty before there was any let up. Then 

 the salmon did not come so fast, and one bear, on going to 

 kill his catch, forgot to come back. The other three were 

 evidently becoming restless, as if they had had about 

 enough for the time being, and I thought it high time to 

 begin shooting if I meant to do any. 



I was then using my single-shot rifle, made to order for 

 me by the Winchester people: the .45-100, in which I shot 

 one hundred grains of powder and six hundred grains of 

 lead. It was one of the guns that killed at both ends, but 

 I liked it better than any I have ever carried. I used it for 

 years, and I discarded it for a lighter .30-30 only when I 

 gave up hunting with a gun and took to hunting with a 

 camera. Personally, I could depend on this old rifle for 

 a sure three shots in twelve seconds, by holding two spare 

 cartridges between the fingers of my right hand, and I 

 have always thought that a hunter is apt to be much more 

 careful if he knows that every shot must tell. I always got 

 as close to the game as I could before shooting, and what- 

 ever I shot, it generally dropped, if hit, and I was usually 

 near enough to be sure of hitting. 



I presume that, as I looked at the three remaining 

 bears, I was the victim of what nowadays would be called 

 a game-hog feeling. At any rate, I found myself figuring 

 on how I might get them all before they could get out of 

 reach. I was a little up-stream from them, and not over 

 fifty yards away. I figured that they would not come 

 toward my side of the creek when I fired, and that if I 

 killed the one nearest to the other shore, its body, if it re- 

 mained on the log, would retard the others in their effort 



