272 STORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAIi WEST. 



to meet all enemies, not excepting man himself, if pushed 

 to it ; and he generally comes off first best with any quad- 

 ruped of less importance than a grizzly. I saw a proud 

 fellow on one occasion engaged in mortal combat with a 

 black bear that must have weighed at least three hundred 

 pounds ; but before the latter could use its great strength 

 and powerful claws to any advantage, the former pierced 

 it with his magnificent antlers, and after two or three 

 charges left it dead on the ground. Stamping upon it two 

 or three times with one of his forelegs, he gave a snort 

 and a defiant look around, as if seeking for new foes, and, 

 finding none, he gazed once more on the slain, then trotted 

 off into the damp, dense forest. I was close enough to 

 have shot him easily ; but I refrained from injuring such 

 a noble, spirited creature, for the sake of the pluck he had 

 displayed. 



That he will boldly face man when brought to bay, I 

 have received the most authentic accounts. Two men in 

 Oregon, who were employed to carry the mail to a small 

 settlement with which there was no communication except 

 by an Indian trail that led over a high and thickly wooded 

 mountain, or by following the sea-shore when the tide was 

 out, were ai-rested on one of their trips by the presence of 

 two elks, a male and a female, that boldly barred the path 

 in front of them, and manifested no inclination to leave it. 

 This path was bounded on the upper side by huge crags 

 which no four-footed animal could leap or clamber over, 

 and the lower by high, wooded cliffs that rose perpendicu- 

 larly upward from the boiling sea, so that neither party 

 could very well advance or retreat, or move to the right or 

 left, without suffering a serious inconvenience or endanger- 

 ing their lives. The men, being unarmed, dared not ad- 

 vance, and the elks being placed between the two horns of 

 the dilemma of which would be best, either to face their 

 most dreaded enemy, or meet death by hurling themselves 

 off the cliff, hesitated about what to do. The men, seeing 

 that they were undecided in their purpose, yelled loudly at 

 them, and this startled them so much that they wheeled 



