288 Hunting the Grisly 



shudder at certain points of the tale; but he 

 was of German ancestry, and in childhood 

 had doubtless been saturated with all kinds 

 of ghost and goblin lore, so that many fear- 

 some superstitions were latent in his mind; 

 besides, he knew well the stories told by the 

 Indian medicine men in their winter camps, 

 of the snow-walkers, and the spectres, and 

 the formless evil beings that haunt the forest 

 depths, and dog and waylay the lonely wan- 

 derer who after nightfall passes through the 

 regions where they lurk; and it may be that 

 when overcome by the horror of the fate that 

 befell his friend, and when oppressed by the 

 awful dread of the unknown, he grew to at- 

 tribute, both at the time and still more in 

 remembrance, weird and elfin traits to what 

 was merely some abnormally wicked and cun- 

 ning wild beast; but whether this was so or 

 not, no man can say. 



When the event occurred Bauman was still 

 a young man, and was trapping with a part- 

 ner among the mountains dividing the forks 

 of the Salmon from the head of Wisdom 

 River. Not having had much luck, he and 

 his partner determined to go up into a par- 

 ticularly wild and lonely pass through which 

 ran a small stream said to contain many 



