64 SEEKING ROMANTIC ADVENTURES. 



Each ranchman's cattle are branded with a distinctive mark burned 

 into the animal's hide with a red hot iron when the beasts are young. 

 Col. Roosevelt owns two brands for his cattle and bronchos — the 

 "Elkhorn" and the "Maltese Cross" — to correspond with the names 

 of his two ranches. The Elkhorn rancli is located thirty miles dow^n 

 the river from Medora. It was originally intended to be the home 

 ranch, and the buildings are much more elaborate and expensive 

 than the Maltese Cross. But the two have been consolidated and 

 administrated from the latter, it being a superior location. 



The whole region sw^armed with game of all sorts, more espec- 

 ially elk, deer and mountain sheep. Col. Roosevelt learned much 

 and enjoyed more during his first year (1884) of cowboy life on 

 the plains. The next summer he came again and hunted all sorts of 

 big game. He tells the following graphic story of an interview he 

 had with a grizzly in Idaho. 



CHARGED BY A GRIZZLY BEAR. 



The bear was wounded and charged with manifest anger. "I 

 held true, aiming behind the shoulder and my bullet shattered the 

 point or lower end of his heart, taking out a big nick. Instantly 

 the great bear turned w^ith a harsh roar of fury and challenge, 

 blowing the blood foam from his mouth, so that I saw^ the gleam 

 of his white fangs; and then he charged straight at me, crashing 

 and bounding through the laurel bushes, so that it was hard to aim. 

 I waited until he came to a fallen tree, raking him as he topped it 

 with a ball, which entered his chest and went through the cavity 

 of his body; but he neither swerved nor flinched and at the moment 

 I did not know that I had struck him. 



He came steadily on, and in another second w'as almost upon 

 me. I fired for his forehead, but my bullet went low, entering his 

 open mouth, smashing his lower jaw and going into the neck. I 

 leaped to one side almost as I pulled the trigger; and through the 

 hanging smoke the first thing I saw was his paw, as he made a 

 vicious side blow at me. 



"The rush of his charge carried him past. As he struck he 

 lurched forward, leaving a pool of bright blood where his muzzle hit 



