Nights with the Grizzlies 
the shot. He is soon on his feet, going back 
on his trail, toward the swamp. Loading 
quickly, I run forward to intercept him, and 
find him, after stumbling along 40 or 50 
yards, in a sitting position near the edge of 
the marsh, evidently nearly done for, with his 
back toward me. A moment’s interval was 
sufficient to place a ball in the back of his 
head: he rolls over, and: is soon dead. <A 
hasty examination showed him to be a large 
bear, and the handsomest and most sym- 
metrically formed I had ever killed. He was 
in just the proper flesh for activity and busi- 
ness, though not quite as large as the big 
bear killed on the Big Bear Fork of Four 
Bear Creek, heretofore described. 
Before proceeding to disembowel him, I 
did what had always been done under like 
circumstances—that is, placed the loaded rifle 
convenient for instant use. Something whis- 
pered this caution, especially now, as it was 
a time when another bear might appear on 
the trail at any moment. Keeping my eyes 
as much as possible at the point on the op- 
posite side of the marsh, where the trail 
debouched on to it, I had proceeded to rip 
231 
