96 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



killed before they could do any damage. 

 There was a very remarkable incident con- 

 nected with the killing of one of them. It 

 occurred in the northern spurs of the Bighorn 

 range. Dr. Merrill, in company with an old 

 hunter, had climbed down into a deep, nar- 

 row canyon. The bottom was threaded with 

 well-beaten elk trails. While following one 

 of these the two men turned a corner of the 

 canyon and were instantly charged by an old 

 she-grisly, so close that it was only by good 

 luck that one of the hurried shots disabled 

 her and caused her to tumble over a cut 

 bank where she was easily finished. They 

 found that she had been lying directly across 

 the game trail, on a smooth well beaten patch 

 of bare earth, which looked as if it had been 

 dug up, refilled, and trampled down. Look- 

 ing curiously at this patch they saw a bit of 

 hide only partially covered at one end ; dig- 

 ging down they found the body of a well grown 

 grisly cub. Its skull had been crushed, and 

 the brains licked out, and there were signs of 

 other injuries. The hunters pondered long 

 over this strange discovery, and hazarded 

 many guesses as to its meaning. At last they 

 decided that probably the cub had been killed, 

 and its brains eaten out, either by some old 

 male-grisly or by a cougar, that the mother 

 had returned and driven away the murderer, 

 and that she had then buried the body and 

 lain above it, waiting to wreak her vengeance 

 on the first passer-by. 



Old Tazewell Woody, during his thirty 



