XI 



AT CLOSE QUARTERS 



LATE in the fall of 1891 I took Dr. C. S. Penfield and 

 James H. Adams of Spokane into the Bitter Root 

 region after big game. I had just returned from a bear 

 hunt in which our party had killed thirteen grizzlies, and 

 as neither of these gentlemen had at that time killed a 

 bear, this made them particularly anxious to get some. 

 We took my two bear-dogs, the bull, and the Indian mon- 

 grel with us, and entering the mountains from the west, 

 we followed the old Lolo Trail that keeps to the crest of 

 the main ridge from four to five thousand feet above the 

 valleys on either side. It was late in the season, and, the 

 bear having sought the lower altitudes, we did not find 

 any along the trail, nor, though we camped beside it for 

 a couple of days and hunted elk and moose, did we have 

 any success. We therefore followed the Lolo for two 

 days more, meeting several parties of Indians returning, 

 heavily loaded with elk and bear meat, from their annual 

 hunt, and then we turned to the right, descended some 

 five thousand feet, and camped on the banks of the 

 middle fork of the Clearwater River. 



This stream is about one hundred yards wide, is, at 

 this season, quite shallow, and like all the streams in this 



95 



