XVII 

 FLASH-LIGHTING GRIZZLIES 



IT was over two years before I had another opportunity 

 to tackle the problem of flash-lighting grizzlies, and in 

 the meantime I had brought my apparatus to the stage, 

 not, indeed, of perfection, but of fair reliability. I had an 

 improved switch, a plentiful supply of proper wire for 

 fuses, and two complete outfits. 



Affairs so shaped themselves in 1908 that I saw my 

 way clear to spending the summer of that year in and 

 about the Yellowstone National Park, and I planned to 

 reach the ground early enough to be on hand, soon after 

 the grizzlies of Mt. Washburn had come out of winter 

 quarters. But a serious washout on the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad sidetracked both me and my camp outfit and 

 horses, and it was well on toward the end of June when I 

 finally succeeded in reaching my field of operations. 



I had now about given up all reliance on wires stretched 

 across the trails, or, indeed, upon any device looking to 

 inducing the bears to spring the flashes for the taking of 

 their own pictures, and was determined to lead the string 

 from the switch to my point of observation, and so operate 

 the apparatus myself. 



This, in itself, was simple enough, and I could easily 



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