64 The Grizzly Bear 



from a fourteen-inch track and a few hairs that he would 

 leave sticking to trees as he passed, I saw nothing that 

 looked like a bear, and was almost willing to swear that 

 no grizzly inhabited the canon. 



For two years I continued at intervals to see the big 

 tracks in this canon, but not once did I see the bear. 

 Finally, both my knowledge and experience having been 

 augmented, I made up my mind that, if such a thing were 

 possible, I would at least set eyes on him, and I got a man 

 to go with me to look after the camp and horses so I 

 would have nothing to do but hunt. We made camp 

 about two miles from the canon, and my first excursion 

 showed me that my old friend with the big feet was still 

 in evidence. 



The upper edges of this canon were heavily timbered, 

 and above this timber on one hand stretched an open hill- 

 side facing the south. Near the head of the canon this 

 hillside was cut into by many little ravines, and along the 

 edges between these the sarvis berry grew. As I had never 

 succeeded in getting sight of the bear in the canon itself, 

 I decided to watch the hillside and perhaps catch him as 

 he came out to feed; so I selected a point which com- 

 manded a view of the whole hill, and every morning from 

 daylight until ten o'clock found me on the lookout, seated 

 in a little clump of fir-trees. And from three o'clock until 

 dark I was in the same place. Day after day, how- 

 ever, passed and brought no bear, and at last the camp 

 tender, while he did not say out and out that he thought 

 I was "locoed," intimated it pretty broadly. For his part, 

 he said, he did not believe there was a bear in the whole 

 country. 



