TRACKS AND TRACKING 



ing bears pass me unharmed at a less distance 

 than fifty yards, and that too at places where I 

 thought I could kill a running rabbit if I wished 

 to do so. 



If a bear succeeds in leaving a thicket without 

 giving opportunity for a shot, there is no need 

 for disappointment he will pass the same spot 

 when he happens to be in the same thicket again, 

 and this is a certainty if he does not abandon that 

 part of the country. This statement has met 

 with some disbelief among a few of my personal 

 acquaintances, and to prove my claims I had to 

 shoot a bear within a month from a given point. 

 I killed Bruin, or rather Old Eph, as it was a 

 grizzly, less than ten feet from where I said I 

 would, and that settled the matter. 



A mile and a half from my home there is such 

 a thicket not over one acre in extent, and if fresh 

 bear signs are seen anywhere in the surrounding 

 woods, which cover several thousand acres and 

 contain many larger and just as dense thickets, 

 I wait there, reasonably sure that I will see Bruin 

 soon after sunrise or at sunset. Experience has 

 proved to me that it is a waste of time to watch 



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