Hunting in Many Lands 



We left camp about 3 o'clock in the after- 

 noon, and without the slightest difficulty found 

 the beast's trail exactly where the Mexican 

 had said we should. Before this time I had 

 killed an odd bear or so in Colorado, and had 

 had some little experience in unraveling the 

 trail of game. It may be rather priding my- 

 self upon the accomplishment, but let me here 

 acknowledge the superiority of professional 

 talent. Leonard, to all intents and purposes, 

 had been born and raised on a sheep range. 

 His earliest recollections had been of the 

 sheep camps of the Sierras, of the reputation 

 of the arch-enemy of the flock and of the 

 havoc which he works. From infancy he, like 

 all the herders, had been constantly upon the 

 lookout for bear sign ; it was his one keen- 

 est intellectual accomplishment and diversion. 

 The result of this special training was such 

 an acuteness of vision and nice discrimination 

 of eye that he could clearly distinguish a bear's 

 footprints upon the naked sand and gravel 

 where at a quick glance I was unable to see 

 any indication whatever. A single grain of 

 sand displaced was sufficient to arrest his eye ; 

 he detected it instantly. To him the minutest 

 particle had its weather-beaten side as well as 



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