Memories of a Bear Hunter 



direction. The bull elk at this time were just 

 growing their horns. 



A few days later, I went out with Catlin and 

 had some amusement in watching him while he 

 went off after a band of elk. They smelled him 

 before he got anywhere near them, and went off; 

 but he was not aware of that and spent a long time 

 crawling about and peeping up to try and find the 

 game. 



At last, at 5 o'clock, I started for camp, but 

 before I had mounted my horse my eye caught a 

 dark moving object on the south side of the moun- 

 tain. It was not a deer, nor an elk, and when I 

 used the glasses it was evident that it was a grizzly, 

 and presently I made out a second. I watched for 

 a few moments to see what they were likely to do, 

 and saw that they were moving down toward the 

 elk baits that had been laid out when we camped 

 cut on this creek several weeks ago. I mounted 

 old Jim and set out down the mountain. Not 

 daring to go directly down, lest I should be seen, I 

 passed out of their sight and down a valley and 

 through a canon. When I passed out of it, I dis- 

 covered the two bears on the opposite side of a 

 deep gorge, and about five hundred yar3s off. To 

 keep from being seen, I was obliged to go straight 

 down to the creek bed, for which they headed, and 



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