208 The Grizzly Bear 



near the end of the trapping season, and this old fellow 

 was about to take up his traps, as fur was becoming poor. 

 Near where he had one of his traps set we had, on several 

 occasions, seen the tracks of a large grizzly, and he had 

 left this trap to the very last in hopes of catching him. 



It was now the mating season, and although there were 

 bear tracks all over the country, we could never find where 

 more than one large bear had gone at a time. 



The last morning that he went to look at the trap near 

 where we had seen the large tracks, I went with him, 

 thinking that, as the bears were so much on the move, I 

 might, perhaps, get a shot. There were also some large 

 snow-banks near by, upon which these bears are very fond 

 of lying when the weather is warm, and as I had already 

 shot several bears there, I thought it likely that I might 

 catch the old fellow cooling himself on the snow. 



As we came near the pen in which the trap was set we 

 saw the old grizzly rise up just outside of it, but, as we 

 both supposed that he was fast in the trap, we did not 

 shoot. To our- surprise, however, after taking a look at 

 us, he bolted for a thicket and disappeared in a twinkling. 

 It was all so sudden and unexpected that we simply stood 

 agape, and as the bear had only to make a couple of 

 jumps to get out of sight, he was safe before we had any 

 chance of shooting him. 



But a greater surprise than this awaited us. On com- 

 ing up to the pen we found a large female grizzly caught in 

 the trap, and chewed, mauled, and pounded to death. 

 From the looks of things there had been a hot old fight. 

 Of course we had seen from a distance that the logs form- 

 ing the pen had been thrown down, but we had assumed 



