THE BEAR "MONARCH." 181 



ravine was dark as night. The belated 

 searcher for bear signs skirted a dense wil- 

 low thicket, and brushed against the 

 bushes with his elbow. "Woof! Woof!" 

 snorted a bear within ten feet of him, in- 

 visible in the thicket. His heart thumped 

 and his rifle lock clicked, together, and 

 which sound was the louder he could not 

 tell. For a few seconds he stood at the 

 edge of the thicket with his rifle ready, ex- 

 pecting the rush of the bear, but the ani- 

 mal was not in a warlike mood and did 

 not rush, and the hunter cautiously backed 

 away about twenty yards up the steep side 

 of the ravine. The cracking of brush indi- 

 cated that bruin was moving in the thicket, 

 but nothing could be seen in the gather- 

 ing gloom. Two or three large rocks rolled 

 down into the willows started the bear out 

 on a run and he could be heard crashing 

 his way down the ravine and splashing into 

 the pools as he went. The remainder of 

 the journey back to camp was made 



