THE BEAR "MONARCH." 187 



killed it, and sat down within thirty yards 

 of the herder and leisurely gorged himself 

 with mutton. The Mexican herder de 

 scribed him as "grande" and "muy bianco" 

 and said he was as tall as a mule. On the 

 following day at noon the same bear went 

 into another sheep camp about three miles 

 from the mill, and stole a freshly killed 

 sheep, which the herder had hung up for 

 his own use. Then he suddenly ceased his 

 raids and disappeared and for the next 

 three weeks the mountain seemed to be 

 deserted by the bears. 



The herders had put strychnine into the 

 carcasses of several sheep that had died 

 of eating poisonous weeds, and McCul- 

 lough thought the bears must have eaten 

 the poisoned mutton and become sick. It 

 requires a strong dose of strychnine to kill 

 a grizzly, and frequently the bears get only 

 enough to make them ill and send them 

 into temporary retirement in some dark 

 gorge. 



But wkile the bears were away the 



13 



