American Big-Game Hunting 



even with the fleecy covering the rocks were 

 still very hard. 



However, it was deep enough for me to 

 crawl out, more scared than hurt, and soon 

 we had sage-brush and grass under our feet, 

 with an easy trail to camp, where a square 

 meal inside of a stomach that sorely needed 

 it soon made amends for all hardships. Won- 

 dering what those bears had been at work at, 

 I went back the next day and found that they 

 had been tearing up a sheep that had died of 

 scab, a disease that wild sheep are subject to. 



To a thorough sportsman, killing bear after 

 a successful stalk is by long odds the best and 

 most exciting method, but the country must 

 be such as permits of this, — as, for instance, 

 when there are long stretches of high moun- 

 tains, plateaus or ridges above, or devoid of, 

 timber, where the bears resort to root, and 

 where the hunter from some elevated post can 

 look over a large area with the aid of glasses. 

 The general procedure, though, is to put out 

 bait — that is, to have the carcass of some ani- 

 mal to attract the bear, and many a noble 

 elk or timorous deer has been thus sacrificed. 

 To avoid this needless destruction it has been 



