My First Trip to the Selkirks 109 



After several hours' slipping and struggling, and re- 

 peated disappointments at several likely looking slides, I 

 crept across a welcome bed of soft pine needles to the 

 edge of a big opening, and craning my head carefully for- 

 ward, looked about me. Now, it is one thing to creep for- 

 ward yourself to get a shot at a bear, and quite a different 

 one to take another man to where he can obtain the shot. 

 Coleman always kept in the rear, because, he said, he was 

 not quick enough at sighting game; so, when we started 

 out, it had been understood that he was to keep close to 

 me, and in case there was any chance of a shot, I would 

 reach back, seize him, and place him in front. 



When I poked my head through the brush on the edge 

 of this slide, the first thing I saw was our old grizzly only 

 fifty or sixty feet away. I therefore reached silently back 

 for Coleman and, not touching him, turned to see what had 

 become of him, and there he was some forty yards in the 

 rear. I made frantic motions for him to come on, and 

 seeing from my actions that something was in sight, he 

 hastened up as rapidly as possible. As soon as he reached 

 me and had regained his wind we looked out over the 

 slide, and were dumfounded to see it tenantless; the bear 

 had gone. We went out and found the trail, followed it 

 into some cedars fifty yards above us, and found that it 

 then made up-stream the way we had come, and that, had 

 we remained at a little creek where we had rested on 

 our way down, we would have got a shot, as the bear 

 had passed close to where we had been sitting. We 

 trailed him for about a half mile, and finding that he 

 was taking advantage of all the thickets he could find, 

 and that he was evidently on the jump, we decided 



