Old Ephraim 333 



must have passed by within a few minutes. It gave 

 me rather an eerie feeling in the silent, lonely woods, 

 to see for the first time the unmistakable proofs that 

 I was in the home of the mighty lord of the wilder- 

 ness. I followed the tracks in the fading twilight 

 until it became too dark to see them any longer, 

 and then shouldered my rifle and walked back to 

 camp. 



That evening we almost had a visit from one of 

 the animals we were after. Several times we had 

 heard at night the musical calling of the bull elk 

 a sound to which no writer has as yet done justice. 

 This particular night, when we were in bed and the 

 fire was smouldering, we were roused by a ruder 

 noise a kind of grunting or roaring whine, an- 

 swered by the frightened snorts of the ponies. It 

 was a bear which had evidently not seen the fire, 

 as it came from behind the bank, and had probably 

 been attracted by the smell of the horses. After it 

 made out what we were it stayed round a short 

 while, again uttered its peculiar roaring grunt, and 

 went off; we had seized our rifles and had run out 

 into the woods, but in the darkness could see noth- 

 ing; indeed it was rather lucky we did not stumble 

 across" the bear, as he could have made short work 

 of us when we were at such a disadvantage. 



Next day we went off on a long tramp through 

 the woods and along the sides of the canyons. There 

 were plenty of berry bushes growing in clusters ; and 

 all around these there were fresh tracks of bear. 

 But the grisly is also a flesh-eater, and has a great 



