;24 



The IVildcrncss Hi niter. 



especially fond of the chase of cougar, bear, and elk. One 

 day while ridinor a stonv mountain trail he saw a little 

 grisly cub watching him from the chaparral above, and 

 he dismounted to tr}" to capture it ; his rifle was a 40-90 

 Sharp's. Just as he neared the cub, he heard a growl and 

 caught a glimpse of the old she, and he at once turned 

 up-hill, and stood under some tall, quaking aspens. From 

 this spot he tired at and wounded the she. then seventy" 

 3'ards off; and she charged furiously. He hit her agrain, 

 but as she kept coming like a thunderbolt he climbed 

 hastily up the aspen, dragging his gun with him. as it had 

 a strap. When the bear reached the foot of the aspen 

 she reared, and bit and clawed the slender trunk, shaking 

 it for a moment, and he shot her throuorh the eve. Off 

 she sprang for a few yards, and then spun round a dozen 

 times, as if dazed or partially stunned ; for the bullet had 

 not touched the brain. Then the vindictive and resolute 

 beast came back to the tree and again reared up against 

 it : this time to receive a bullet that dropped her lifeless. 

 Mr. Whitney then climbed down and walked to where the 

 cub had been sittino- as a looker-on. The little animal 

 did not move until he reached out his hand ; when it sud- 

 denly struck at him like an angrv" cat. dove into the 

 bushes, and was seen no more. 



In the summer of iSSS an old-time trapper, named 

 Charley Norton, while on Loon Creek, of the middle fork 

 of the Salmon, meddled with a she and her cubs. She 

 ran at him and with one blow of her paw almost knocked 

 off his lower jaw : yet he recovered, and was alive when I 

 last heard of him. 



