114 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



ishment he saw a large bear galloping after him, 

 at the horse's heels. For a few jumps the 

 race was close, then the horse drew away and 

 the bear wheeled and went into a thicket of 

 wild plums. The amazed and indignant cow- 

 boy, as soon as he could rein in his steed, drew 

 his revolver and rode back to and around the 

 thicket, endeavoring to provoke his late pur- 

 suer to come out and try conclusions on more 

 equal terms ; but prudent Ephraim had ap- 

 parently repented of his freak of ferocious 

 bravado, arid declined to leave the secure 

 shelter of the jungle. 



Other attacks are of a much more explicable 

 nature. Mr. Huffman, the photographer of 

 Miles City, informed me that once when butch- 

 ering some slaughtered elk he was charged 

 twice by a she-bear and two well-grown cubs. 

 This was a piece of sheer bullying, undertaken 

 solely with the purpose of driving away the 

 man and feasting on the carcasses ; for in each 

 charge the three bears, after advancing with 

 much blustering, roaring, and growling, halted 

 just before coming to close quarters. In an- 

 other instance a gentleman I once knew, a 

 Mr. S. Carr, was charged by a grisly from 

 mere ill temper at being disturbed at meal- 

 time. The man was riding up a valley ; and 

 the bear was at an elk carcass, near a clump 

 of firs. As soon as it became aware of the 

 approach of the horseman, while he was yet 

 over a hundred yards distant, it jumped on 

 the carcass, looked at him a moment, and then 

 ran straight for him. There was no particular 



