136 HUNTING SPORTS OP THE WEST. 



good fellow, but that one had a cross of a bull in him ; 

 well, we came on the trail of a fat bear for fat he was 

 of that I had infallible signs ; in the first place, because 

 he had crossed a sandy bed of a small stream where his 

 footsteps were deeply impressed^showmg the balls round 

 and full ; secondly, I found that he had not eaten the 

 acorns with their cups, but had taken the trouble to se- 

 parate them. I fancied he could not be far off, and fol- 

 lowed up the trail, which led towards the bluff; at about 

 two hundred yards from it, he had entered the stony 

 bed of a brook. I kept close up with the dog, making 

 as little noise as possible, and only taking my eye off the 

 trail when a turn or higher ground gave me a chance of 

 seeing the beast. As I proceeded I was astonished to 

 find traces of horses leading towards the bluff. Two 

 capital horses had been stolen from us a few nights be- 

 fore, and we had looked everywhere for traces of them, 

 without success ; of course, no one thought of looking on 

 the edge of the cliff. 



" My previous astonishment was nothing to what I ex- 

 perienced, when I came to the place, where, after heavy 

 rain, the brook falls over the cliff, but which in dry 

 weather does not contain a drop of water, and found, 

 where the depth might be about twenty feet, two fir-trees, 

 rounded, and placed standing against the rock, just so 

 far apart that a horse might slide down them, but could 

 not fall through; that this was the use- they had been 

 put to was evident from the marks of the struggles of the 

 horses, before they were launched, and from patches of 

 horsehair sticking to the poles. That the bear had de- 



