Memories of a Bear Hunter 



From this day, June 22, to August 19, we were 

 camped on and about Sheep Mountain, the eastern- 

 most spur reaching out to the plains of the Sho- 

 shoni group of mountains. The easternmost peak 

 of this end is Heart Mountain, said to have re- 

 ceived its name from the resemblance of this peak 

 to a heart. It is the dividing mountain between 

 the waters of Clark's Fork on the north and Stink- 

 ing River on the south. 



On these mountains we had three different 

 camps, the highest being at an elevation of about 

 8,200 feet. On the mountains there was a large 

 band of cow elk with their young and enough 

 young bulls and mountain sheep to give us camp 

 meat. 



Cow elk have a peculiar way of calling their 

 young. The sound is made with the lips, and can 

 be heard for some distance. 66 In the summer 

 season the cows keep close together for protection, 

 and the young bulls, then a year old the previous 

 May or June, herd with the cows. The black-tail 

 deer had gone further back into the mountains. 



Bears were fairly abundant, but I secured only 

 two, and without adventure. Nevertheless, the 

 experience with one of them is worth relating. 

 In a small prairie nearby there was the carcass of 

 an elk, which a grizzly soon began to visit. I 



