160 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



ranch, either the same bear that figured in 

 them, or another of similar tastes, took to 

 game-hunting. The beast lived in the same 

 succession of huge thickets which cover for 

 two or three miles the river bottoms and the 

 mouths of the inflowing creeks ; and he sud- 

 denly made a raid on the whitetail deer which 

 were plentiful in the dense cover. The 

 shaggy, clumsy monster was cunning enough 

 to kill several of these knowing creatures. 

 The exact course of procedure I never could 

 find out ; but apparently the bear laid in wait 

 beside the game trails, along which the deer 

 wandered. 



In the old days when the innumerable bison 

 grazed free on the prairie, the grisly some- 

 times harassed their bands as it now does the 

 herds of the ranchman. The bison was the 

 most easily approached of all game, and the 

 great bear could often get near some outlying 

 straggler, in its quest after stray cows, year- 

 lings, or calves. In default of a favorable 

 chance to make a prey of one of these weaker 

 members of the herds, it did not hesitate to 

 attack the mighty bulls themselves ; and per- 

 haps the grandest sight which it was ever the 

 good fortune of the early hunters to witness, 

 was one of these rare battles between a hungry 

 grisly and a powerful buffalo bull. Nowadays, 

 however, the few last survivors of the bison are 

 vanishing even from the inaccessible mountain 

 fastnesses in which they sought a final refuge 

 from their destroyers. 



At present the wapiti is of all wild game 



