312 The Wilderness Hunter. 



with a bright fire in front of it, lighting up the night. 

 There was an inch of snow on the ground. Just after 

 they went to bed a grisly came close to camp. Their dog 

 rushed out and they could hear it bark round in the dark- 

 ness for nearly an hour ; then the bear drove it off and 

 came right into camp. It went close to the fire, picking 

 up the scraps of meat and bread, pulled a haunch of veni- 

 son down from a tree, and passed and repassed in front 

 of the tepee, paying no heed whatever to the two men, 

 who crouched in the doorway talking to one another. 

 Once it passed so close that Woody could almost have 

 touched it. Finally his companion fired into it, and off 

 it ran, badly wounded, without an attempt at retaliation. 

 Next morning they followed its tracks in the snow, and 

 found it a quarter of a mile away. It was near a pine 

 and had buried itself under the loose earth, pine needles, 

 and snow ; Woody's companion almost walked over it, 

 and putting his rifle to its ear blew out its brains. 



In all his experience Woody had personally seen but 

 four men who were badly mauled by bears. Three of 

 these were merely wounded. One was bitten terribly in 

 the back. Another had an arm partially chewed off. The 

 third was a man named George Dow, and the accident 

 happened to him on the Yellowstone, about the year 1878. 

 He was with a pack animal at the time, leading it on a 

 trail through a wood. Seeing a big she-bear with cubs 

 he yelled at her ; whereat she ran away, but only to cache 

 her cubs, and in a minute, having hidden them, came 

 racing back at him. H is pack animal being slow he started 

 to climb a tree ; but before he could get far enough up 



