]72 AMERICA^ GAME BIED SEtOO'TlHfi. 



felt like giving up, when Ephraim stopped all of a sud- 

 den as if he were shot. I ran a little further and then 

 looked round, and what should I see but the old fellow 

 drinking from the bottle of whiskey which had fallen out 

 of my pocket while I was skedaddling. ' That whiskey will 

 be your ruin, old fellow,' said I, as I lifted my rifle and 

 fired. The next thing I saw was the grizzly falling stone 

 dead, with the bottle in his paws. I went up to him and 

 found I had put the bullet through his eye into the brain. 

 I took off his skin, but left the carcass behind, as grizzly 

 steak is rather tough eating. But for that whiskey, old 

 Ephraim would have killed me sure, for I couldn't have 

 got away from him. I sold his skin afterwards for 

 fifty dollars to a fellow who wanted it in order to boast 

 that he had killed the bear himself ; so you see that 

 whiskey brings a man good luck sometimes, and even 

 saves his life." 



"That's the toughest bear story I ever heard," wliis- 

 pered a companion to me. " I might believe it, were it 

 not for the grizzly stopping to drink the whiskey. It 

 will do for a yarn, anyhow." 



We were tramping through the forest while he was 

 relating this tale, and though Ave were listening to him 

 with deep interest, our eyes were peering in every direc- 

 tion for signs of game of any kind. We met notliing 

 worthy of our attention until we reached a part where 

 several trees had been burned down by recent fires, 

 and there we saw a brood of rutfed grouse which were 

 taking a dust-bath in tlie ashes of a burned stump. 

 They allowed us to approach them within a distance of 

 thirty yards before they took to the wing, and this 

 gave a companion and myself, who carried shot-guns, an 

 opportunity to score with both our barrels. The one 

 that I hit with the right barrel fell dead, but the other 

 flew into a tree and remained thereuntil I brought it down 

 with another shot. The remainder of the brood flew 



