THE BEAR "MONARCH." 197 



mention of the hunters for some time. He 

 was an audacious marauder and killed his 

 beef almost within sight of the camp-fire. 

 Often at night a cow or steer could be 

 heard bellowing in terror, and in the morn- 

 ing a freshly killed animal would be found 

 in some hollow not far away, bearing 

 marks of bear's claws. Whitened bones 

 scattered all over the hills showed that the 

 bear had been the boss butcher of General 

 Beal's ranch for a long time. His average 

 allowance of beef appeared to be about two 

 steers a week, but he usually ate only half 

 a carcass, leaving the rest to the coyotes 

 and vultures. 



One morning Bowers returned from a 

 hunt for the horses, two of which had been 

 struck and slightly wounded by the bear 

 a few nights before, and had run away, 

 and reported the discovery of a dead steer 

 within 150 yards of an unfinished trap, 

 about a quarter of a mile from camp. The 

 animal appeared to have been killed two 

 nights before, and the bear had made but 



