Memories of a Bear Hunter 



approach when he began feeding. I finally came 

 to within forty or fifty yards of him without his 

 discovering me, and watching when his side was 

 exposed, delivered a deadly shot, which knocked 

 him over. I fired two more shots to make sure of 

 him. He was a large bear, his skin measuring, 

 when tacked down, seven feet seven and a half 

 inches. 



Messiter also killed a good-sized bear when 

 alone and in daylight. The two other bears were 

 killed at a bait established near the camp, one at 

 9 o'clock and the other at 12 o'clock at night. 

 Other elk baits were looked after at night, but 

 somehow the bears always learned of our presence 

 in time to retire. We had more or less stormy 

 weather, blizzards of rain and then snow, which 

 sometimes lasted for twelve hours. In the 

 three or four inches of snow which some- 

 times lay on the ground, we followed the bear 

 tracks, but to no purpose. From the Bannock 

 camp we heard, October 4, of a fight in the valley 

 of the Yellowstone, 44 , which General Miles had 

 had with a hostile band of Bannocks. He was said 

 to have killed eight or ten, and to have dispersed 

 the remainder. He felt sure that these people 

 would now make for Tendoy's band, and joining 

 them, would become respectable Indians. Of 



101 



