A Bear-Hunt in the Sierras 



a boulder. A bear could not put his foot 

 upon the ground without leaving an impress 

 which he could detect. His talent was so 

 quick and unerring that we soon organized a 

 division of labor. He was to concentrate his 

 energies and attention upon the trail, while I, 

 by his side or a step in advance, when the 

 trail read itself and permitted such a course, 

 was to watch ahead and around for both of us. 

 Fortunately this arrangement was satisfactory 

 to him. The hardest of the trail to decipher 

 was where it was written in condensed short- 

 hand across a mountain slide or coulisse of 

 naked granite boulders. Here not one trace 

 was to be found in a dozen yards. Fortunately 

 we could trust in the genius of the bear; he 

 was aware, as well as La Place, that a straight 

 line is the shortest distance between two 

 points. He undoubtedly knew exactly where 

 he was heading. We had his general direc- 

 tion, and by beating about for a tuft of grass 

 here with a blade displaced, a stray gooseberry 

 bush there with a leaf awry, and yonder a 

 patch of thicker vegetation, betraying inter- 

 ference, we soon succeeded, owing mainly to 

 Leonard's genius as a pathfinder, in getting 

 through a couple of acres of this most vague 



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