TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 223 



by the back of the neck and they rolled over together. They 

 were now in the wildest state of excitement, both suffering 

 severe pain, each looking like a great mass of animated sand 

 and blood. They started apart and stood within twenty feet 

 of each other, panting like race-horses. The bear's mouth 

 was full of hair and blood, while the bull's horns were red 

 with gore for more than half their length, showing how 

 deeply they had penetrated the body of the bear. 



They stood apart but a few moments. The bull kept 

 glancing toward his little family, while the bear approached 

 one step at a time and raised itself on its hind legs, prepar- 

 ing to renew the conflict. I could hardly keep myself from 

 sending a ball through the bear's worthless body, for I 

 found myself in sympathy with the bull from the first, but I 

 was curious to see how the affair would terminate. The bat- 

 tle had carried them closer and closer to the herd, and a 

 two-year-old bull, seeing how matters stood with his de- 

 fender, and burning with the desire to test his own strength, 

 came upon the scene, pawed the ground, bowed his back, and 

 rushed upon the bear with all his force,, but was repulsed 

 with a blow on the side of his head that turned him half- 

 way round. 



His old friend was close at hand, however, and taking 

 advantage of the situation gave the bear another goring. 

 The young bull kept shaking his head the while. The blow 

 he had received had evidently stunned him, but he walked up 

 within a few yards of the bear, turned himself sidewise, 

 took a few steps, then flew again at his antagonist, plunged 

 his horns into its bowels, making a gaping wound that 

 allowed part of the entrails to fall out. Maddened with pain, 

 the infuriated bear caught him by the hump with its claws, 

 and tore the flesh from the back of the youngster's neck 

 with his teeth, leaving the bones bare. The little bull roared 



