Nights with the Grizzlies 



any moment to rise out of the ground ? How 

 every noise — the crackling of a twig — star- 

 tled you ? So it is with me when watching on 

 the trail of this bear at such an hour. When 

 occasion requires it, his movement is as 

 stealthy and noiseless as a cat's. You hear 

 the rolling of a boulder up the mountain-side 

 in the timber several hundred yards away. 

 You know it must be done by some large 

 animal, and you suspect a bear. Presently 

 the same noise, but closer, and your faculties 

 are all on the qui vive, and you are every 

 moment expecting his appearance. You wait 

 what, to the excited senses, appears a long 

 time. What has become of him? It was, 

 perhaps, a false alarm, and you are dis- 

 couraged; when, presently, there he stands, 

 apparently right on you, and seemingly risen 

 out of the ground. 



So it was on this occasion, as I lay in the 

 open about thirty feet from the thicket, in 

 a prone position in the grass, clothed in 

 soiled buckskin, with three cartridges in left 

 hand and finger on trigger, ready to rise into 

 a sitting position and deliver fire. Hark ! 

 the crackling of brush almost behind me. It 

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