76 The Grizzly Bear 



There was no use in trying to follow him in the dark, 

 nor, indeed, would it have been advisable, and we went on 

 to camp, thinking to trail him in the morning in case we 

 found that he was hit. But in the night it began to rain, 

 and it was still raining when we started out in the morn- 

 ing. Under some thick trees, where the rain had not 

 washed it out, we found plenty of blood, and at other 

 places the bear had lain down for some time, but after we 

 got out of the thick timber rain had washed the blood 

 off the grass and leaves, so that it was impossible to follow 

 the trail. We cross-cut the bottom and skirted the base of 

 the mountain, but we could not find the bear, and finally 

 we gave up the search. Then, some three days later, our 

 cook saw several buzzards circling about and swooping 

 down over near the mountain, and he went out to see what 

 it all meant. He found, between two large boulders that 

 were nearly overgrown with brush, the body of the old 

 grizzly that we had wounded. He had crawled in between 

 the rocks and had covered the entrance so completely 

 that, though we passed it twice at least, we never saw it. 

 The hide was quite useless. We took the teeth and nails 

 of the poor old fellow, but I would gladly have returned 

 them to him with his life, if I could have. 



