98 Hunting the Grisly 



gry and suddenly gave it a tremendous cuff 

 with his paw; in his bearing he had some- 

 thing half humorous, half devilish. I crept 

 up within forty yards; but for several minutes 

 he would not keep his head still. Then some- 

 thing attracted his attention in the forest, and 

 he stood motionless looking toward it, broad- 

 side to me, with his forepaws planted on the 

 carcass. This gave me my chance. I drew 

 a very fine bead between his eye and ear, and 

 pulled the trigger. He dropped like a steer 

 when struck with a pole-axe. 



If there is a good hiding-place handy it is 

 better to lie in wait at the carcass. One day 

 on the headwaters of the Madison, I found 

 that a bear was coming to an elk I had shot 

 some days before; and I at once determined 

 to ambush the beast when he came back that 

 evening. The^ carcass lay in the middle of a 

 valley a quarter of a mile broad. The bot- 

 tom of this valley was covered by an open 

 forest of tall pines; a thick jungle of smaller 

 evergreens marked where the mountains rose 

 on either hand. There were a number of large 

 rocks scattered here and there, one, of very 

 convenient shape, being only some seventy or 

 eighty yards from the carcass. Up this I 

 clambered. It hid me perfectly, and on its 



