BEAR-HUNTING 



that of the native, as indeed it nearly always is, as 

 well as the white man's rifle-shooting. Czaroff 

 crossed an open glade without making any sign of 

 game; but, as luck had it, once more I caught a 

 glimpse of something a mile or so away which did 

 not look quite like a rock or a tree. I swung the 

 glasses on it, and the next instant was frantically 

 beckoning to Czaroff to get down out of sight. 

 There, on a mountainside across the valley from us, 

 standing now on her haunches and swinging her 

 great head from side to side as she scanned the 

 country back of her, was a great bear, a fine one, 

 gray on the shoulders and back and dark on the 

 flanks, a grand specimen of the Kodiak grizzly, 

 worth coming all this way to see. 



Presently the old lady swung down on all-fours 

 and moved into the near-by thicket. Then I saw 

 that she had with her two young cubs, of apparently 

 eighteen months of age. A Kodiak bear cub of that 

 age is about as big as a twelve-cylinder automobile. 



"Mamma, two little boy," said Czaroff in sudden 

 access of English. I nodded and asked him what 

 he thought of the wind. "Natu karosha!" he said 

 again. "No good! Mebbe no shoot um. I dinno." 



At least we would try. We now hurried into the 

 business of making the stalk, and soon reached a 

 point where we could reconnoiter. Alas! Once 



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