BEAR-HUNTING 



deep canon. No hand of man would ever get the 

 hide of her ; that was sure in their Aleut mind. And 

 the cubs? They had supposed them gone also, 

 and had started home, as they had worked long 

 and were hungry. Then and there was discipline 

 enacted. They had to turn and climb the mountain 

 again with me. It was another hour before we had 

 the crippled cubs killed and skinned, and dark then 

 was at hand. The great gray robe must wait an- 

 other day; but have it, I resolved, we must at any 

 hazard. 



The next day the full personnel of the Grizzly 

 Bear Company, Limited, was again afield. We 

 took the dory cable, also an oar for digging snow, 

 and by noon we were at the foot of the cataract 

 down which the old lady had slid in her tragic 

 ending. It looked discouraging, but our luck held. 



A crack or rent ran across the snow-field here, 

 and this let light down under it and into the black 

 cavern cut out by the waterway. Barnes stooped 

 and looked down under the snow at the upper edge. 

 He flung up his hands in joy. "I see her!" 



Our bear was lying to one side of the center of 

 the snow-field, damming up the flow of ice water. 

 Barnes dropped down into the crack through the 

 snow roof and slipped over her neck the cable which, 

 standing in the spray, we passed down from above. 



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