A Sportsman 137 



grizzly was not far off, coming leisurely toward him. 

 Mr. De la Vergne crouched behind a large fallen log 

 and, taking deliberate aim, fired at the bear's breast. 

 No sooner had he fired than the bear, giving a savage 

 growl, came for him, though not at full speed, as he 

 was badly wounded, and received three more shots, 

 dropping finally in a death struggle within twenty feet 

 of Mr. De la Vergne. 



A man whom I afterwards employed named Saw- 

 yer more of a miner than a hunter, while taking a 

 mule pack of provisions over the range for me, was 

 suddenly confronted by two large grizzly bears on the 

 trail, whose sudden appearance stampeded his mule 

 away from him, which went off at a galloping rate with 

 its load of provisions and Sawyer's rifle, and the poor 

 fellow had barely time to get up a tree before the two 

 bears were on the ground below. They kept him up 

 the tree for several hours, and he did not recover his 

 mule until the following day. The mule, when found, 

 had made his way to Breckenridge, the nearest settle- 

 ment, eleven miles from the scene of the disturbance. 



Fortunately the grizzlies are not good tree-climbers, 

 unless aided by low-down branches which they may 

 seize and which are sufficiently strong to bear their 

 weight. 



AFTER two weeks' stay in the Park, we crossed 

 over the range to the headwaters of the Rio 

 Colorado, in the vicinity of some gulch miners on the 

 California and Georgia gulches, where they were tak- 

 ing out some very good gold nuggets of fine gold. 



