42 AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 



camp by the side of a crystal brook he strolled out to see if he could get 

 a grouse for supper. To his surprise he encountered instead a giant 

 grizzly. He fired at and wounded the animal, which took refuge in a 

 laurel thicket. Night was at hand and the hunter peered into the 

 thicket, eager for a second shot. While he did so the bear came sud- 

 denly out. "Scarlet strings of froth hung from his lips; his eyes 

 burned like embers in the gloom." 



Roosevelt fired again, the bullet, as it afterwards proved, shatter- 

 ing the point of the grizzly's heart. We must let the hunter himself 

 tell the remainder of this story : 



"Instantly the great bear turned with a harsh roar of fury and 

 challenge, blowing the bloody foam from his mouth, so that I saw the 

 gleam of his white fangs ; and then he charged straight at me, crash- 

 ing and bounding through the laurel bushes, so that it was hard to aim. 

 I waited until he came to a fallen tree, raking him as he topped it wnth 

 a ball that entered his chest and most through the cavity of his body, 

 but he neither swerved nor flinched and at the moment I did not know 

 that I had struck him. 



"He came steadily on and in another second was almost upon me. 

 I fired for his forehead, but my bullet went low, entering his open 

 mouth, smashing his lower jaw, and going into his neck. I leaped to 

 one side almost as I pulled the trigger, and through the hanging 

 smoke the first thing I saw was his paw as he made a vicious side 

 blow at me. The rush of his charge carried him past. As he struck, 

 he lurched forward, leaving a pool of bright blood where his muzzle 

 hit the ground; but he recovered himself and made one or two jumps 

 onwards, while I hurriedly jammed a couple of cartridges into the 

 magazine — my rifle holding only four, all of which I had fired. Then 

 he tried to pull up, but as he did so his muscles seemed suddently to 

 give way, his head drooped, and he rolled over and over like a shot 

 rabbit. Each of my first three bullets had inflicted a mortal wound.'' 



The skin and head of this monarch of the Rockies are still among 

 Mr. Roosevelt's cherished treasures. 



Not so thrilHng, yet in a sense more unpleasant, was his shooting 

 of a "silver-tip" bear cub, which he hastened to pick up, knowing what 

 it meant if Madame Bruin should happen that way and find her cub 



