A Photographic Expedition 155 



scent liberally scattered over the neighborhood, to allay 

 the suspicions of these bears who were reputed to be ac- 

 customed to the presence of man. I therefore walked up 

 and down the trail for some hundreds of feet and again 

 concealed myself where I could watch without being seen. 



The first bear delegation numbered three, but they 

 were not my friends of the canon, being, for one thing, 

 considerably larger. I judged them to be nearly three 

 years old, and they would have weighed, I should say, in 

 the neighborhood of three hundred pounds apiece. They 

 were as sleek as seals, and one of them had a beautiful silver 

 coat. When they reached the point to which I had walked 

 up the trail, they stopped and scented for a few moments, 

 turned their heads in the direction in which I had gone, 

 and then came on, paying no further attention to the mat- 

 ter. This encouraged me, and I began to think that my 

 ruse was to prove successful; but when he reached the 

 wire the leader stopped abruptly, and the three then stood 

 up, looked at each other knowingly, and then, for all the 

 world as though they inferred a connection between my 

 scent and the presence of the wire, began methodically to 

 track me up. 



I was standing near a tree, and, not having expected 

 any such move on their part, I had not taken the pre- 

 caution to step back out of sight, and now I did not dare 

 to move for fear of frightening them. I therefore stood 

 absolutely still and watched their play with close atten- 

 tion and absorbed interest. They followed my every turn 

 as unerringly as a hound follows a hare, and came on 

 withal as silently as three shadows. Of course I had been 

 careful to select a station to leeward of the trail, and this 



