336 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



"Old Ephraim" had come back to the carcass. A 

 minute afterward, listening with strained ears, we 

 heard him brush by some dry twigs. It was en- 

 tirely too Hark to go in after him; but we made up 

 our minds that on the morrow he should be ours. 



Early next morning we were over at the elk car- 

 cass, and, as we expected, found that the bear had 

 eaten his fill at it during the night. His tracks 

 showed him to be an immense fellow, and were so 

 fresh that we doubted if he had left long before 

 we arrived; and we made up our minds to follow 

 him up and try to find his lair. The bears that lived 

 on these mountains had evidently been little dis- 

 turbed; indeed, the Indians and most of the white 

 hunters are rather chary of meddling with "Old 

 Ephraim/' as the mountain men style the grisly, 

 unless they get him at a disadvantage ; for the sport 

 is fraught with some danger and but small profit. 

 The bears thus seemed to have very little fear of 

 harm, and we thought it likely that the bed of the 

 one who had fed on the elk would not be far away. 



My companion was a skilful tracker, and we took 

 up the trail at once. For some distance it led over 

 the soft, yielding carpet of moss and pine needles, 

 and the footprints were quite easily made out, al- 

 though we could follow them but slowly ; for we had, 

 of course, to keep a sharp lookout ahead and around 

 us as we walked noiselessly on in the sombre half- 

 light always prevailing under the great pine trees, 

 through whose thickly interlacing branches stray 

 but few beams of light, no matter how bright the 



