My First Grizzly 57 



meat and had no way of carrying the heads. At last, 

 however, having, perforce, given up getting a grizzly, we 

 turned our faces homeward, and I determined to kill an 

 elk and pack out the head and what meat we could. 



We therefore left the divide we had been following 

 and struck off to the right to reach a stream of consid- 

 erable size flowing into the main north fork of the Clear- 

 water River. We had been told by an old miner that 

 there was a large lick on this stream about twenty miles 

 from the trail, and he directed us as to where to leave the 

 ridge, and where, after we struck the stream, we would 

 find the lick. 



We followed his directions and arrived at the creek 

 about noon the second day. The stream was very swift 

 and cold, since we were near its source, and it flowed from 

 the snow-banks only a few miles away. We set up our 

 tent, turned the horses out to graze, had a quick lunch, and 

 I, taking my rifle, went to search for the lick, leaving my 

 friend to attend to the camp. The weather was warm, 

 and expecting to return before dark, I did not take my 

 coat. I found the lick where the miner had stated and saw 

 plenty of fresh tracks of elk and deer. There was no tim- 

 ber nearer the spot than across the creek, except some two 

 hundred yards down the stream, but close to the lick, on 

 its lower side, there were some small bushes three or four 

 feet high. Into these, then, I crawled, and finding an old 

 log that had been left there by high water years before, 

 I cut some of the bushes and made a rough bed on the 

 lower side of it. 



This was my first experience in watching such a place, 

 and I did not know that, at that time of year, the game 



