In the Old Rockies 



and looking me straight in the face, stood stock 

 still. Whether she would have turned tail in an- 

 other instant and run from me I do not know. It 

 is not improbable. 



Here was the opportunity for which I had 

 waited so long, for it was the only moment from 

 the time my eyes first fell upon her and they did 

 not wander very far from her during this time 

 during which she kept her head perfectly still, and 

 I did not dare shoot at any other portion of her 

 body. I threw my rifle to my face as quickly as 

 I could and fired at her left eye. At the shot, she 

 arose upon her hindfeet and danced for all the 

 world like a trained dancing bear back to the spot 

 where the elk lay, and then fell backward almost 

 across the elk carcass. I had hit her rather too 

 high, with the result that I had lifted off a small 

 portion of the top of her skull, but this I did not 

 know then. I ran up to her thinking to finish her 

 off with a second shot. Then I was possessed with 

 a desire to be able to say that it had taken only 

 one bullet each to kill my first and second grizzlies, 

 for I had killed a smaller bear several weeks pre- 

 vious to this. So I stood over her with my rifle 

 pointed at her head and in glorious excitement 

 watched her struggles grow less and less until she 

 lay still. I then walked around her, about the 



3" 



