98 Hunting the Grisly 



gry and suddenly gave it a tremendous cufl 

 with his paw; in his bearing he had some 

 thing half humorous, half devilish. I crept 

 up within forty yards; but for several minutes 

 he would not keep his head still. Then some 

 thing attracted his attention in the forest, and 

 he stood motionless looking toward it, broad 

 side to me, with his forepaws planted on the 

 carcass. This gave me my chance. I drew 

 a very fine bead between his eye and ear, and 

 pulled the trigger. He dropped like a steer 

 when struck with a pole-axe. 



If there is a good hiding-place handy it is 

 better to lie in wait at the carcass. One day 

 on the headwaters of the Madison, I found 

 that a bear was coming to an elk I had shot 

 some days before; and I at once determined 

 to ambush the beast when he came back that 

 evening. The carcass lay in the middle of a 

 valley a quarter of a mile broad. The bot 

 tom of this valley was covered by an open 

 forest of tall pines; a thick jungle of smaller 

 evergreens marked where the mountains rose 

 on either hand. There were a number of large 

 rocks scattered here and there, one, of very 

 convenient shape, being only some seventy or 

 eighty yards from the carcass. Up this I 

 clambered. It hid me perfectly, and on its 



