American Big-Game Hunting 



pay him a long-postponed visit. After an 

 ample repast, including some delicious home- 

 made butter, which I had not tasted for a 

 month, Woody and I, with our little pack- 

 train, regretfully filed off, and, fording the 

 river, took up our wanderings, not expecting 

 to see our cheery host again for a year. 



We had not proceeded far, though, when 

 we met an excited " cow-puncher," who evi- 

 dently had news to tell. He had been up 

 on the side of the mountain, which was here 

 a long grassy slope as smooth as any of 

 our well-tended lawns, extending upward to 

 where it joined the dense pine-forest which 

 covered the upper portion of the mountain. 

 Our friend was the horse- wrangler for a neigh- 

 boring ranch, and was out looking for horses. 

 Did any one ever see a horse-wrangler who 

 was not looking for missing stock? 



When skirting the timber he surprised, or 

 was surprised by, a good-sized grizzly, which 

 promptly chased him downward and home- 

 ward, and evidently for a short distance was 

 well up in the race. Gathering from his de- 

 scription that the bear had been at work on 

 the carcass of a steer that had died from eat- 



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