346 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



had picked up wonderfully in condition during our 

 stay on the mountains ; but they were apt to wander 

 very far during the night, for there were so many 

 bears and other wild beasts around that they kept 

 getting frightened and running off. We were very 

 loth to leave our hunting grounds, but time was 

 pressing, and we had already many more trophies 

 than we could carry ; so one cool morning when the 

 branches of the evergreens were laden with the 

 feathery snow that had fallen overnight, we struck 

 camp and started out of the mountains, each of us 

 taking his own bedding behind his saddle, while the 

 pack-ponies were loaded down with bearskins, elk, 

 and deer antlers, and the hides and furs of other 

 game. In single file we moved through the woods, 

 and across the canyons to the edge of the great table- 

 land, and then slowly down the steep slope to its 

 foot, where we found our canvas-topped wagon ; and 

 next day saw us setting out on our long journey 

 homeward, across the three hundred weary miles of 

 treeless and barren-looking plains country. 



Last spring, since the above was written, a bear 

 killed a man not very far from my ranch. It was 

 at the time of the floods. Two hunters came down 

 the river, by our ranch, on a raft, stopping to take 

 dinner. A score or so of miles below, as we after- 

 ward heard from the survivor, they landed, and 

 found a bear in a small patch of brushwood. After 

 waiting in vain for it to come out, one of the men 

 rashly attempted to enter the thicket, and was in- 

 stantly struck down by the beast, before he could 



