THE BEAR "MONARCH. " 181 



ravine was dark as night. The belated 

 searcher for bear signs skirted a dense wil 

 low thicket, and brushed against the 

 bushes with his elbow. "Woof! Woof!" 

 snorted a bear within ten feet of him, in 

 visible in the thicket. His heart thumped 

 and his rifle lock clicked, together, and 

 which sound was the louder he could not 

 tell. For a few seconds he stood at the 

 edge of the thicket with his rifle ready, ex 

 pecting the rush of the bear, but the ani 

 mal was not in a warlike mood and did 

 not rush, and the hunter cautiously backed 

 away about twenty yards up the steep side 

 of the ravine. The cracking of brush indi 

 cated that bruin was moving in the thicket, 

 but nothing could be seen in the gather 

 ing gloom. Two or three large rocks rolled 

 down into the willows started the bear out 

 on a run and he could be heard crashing 

 his way down the ravine and splashing into 

 the pools as he went. The remainder of 

 the journey back to camp was made 



