252 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



rifle was against his head ! When we skinned him, 

 we found that he had been shot through the heart, 

 through the lungs, through the head, and through 

 the loins ! 



Horses are terrified at the sight of bears, and I 

 remember strapping the hide of this one to the 

 pack-horse we had with us. Being somewhat cun- 

 ning in such matters, we used the famous diamond 

 hitch, and that horse bucked till I thought he 

 would buck his own hide off as well as the bear's ; 

 but the hitch only tightened. Then he bolted, and 

 we found him when we got back to camp, a sadder 

 and wiser animal, peacefully grazing, with the bear- 

 skin still on his back. 



The peculiar quality of a wounded bear's roar 

 must be heard to be appreciated. We had a cook 

 who one day met a bear, and fired at it. The bear 

 roared ; the cook fled. He came into camp (I was 

 not there, but I can vouch for the truth of the 

 story) screaming with fear; he entreated the 

 " boys " to arm themselves ; he swore that the big- 

 gest grizzly on earth was about to join the camp, et 

 cetera. The camp listened, finger on trigger, but no 

 bear appeared. Upon cross-examination the cook 

 recited the facts : he had seen the bear under a 

 tree ; he had stalked it ; he had drawn a good bead ; 

 he had fired. Then the bear had pursued him to 

 within a few yards of the camp. Finally the boys 

 set forth, and, lo ! under the tree where he had 

 been first seen was poor bruin — stone dead, with 

 a bullet through his heart. However, the cook 

 still maintains that the monster (he was only a 

 small cinnamon) pursued him for more than a mile ! 



