1 88 HUNTING TRIPS 



their actions; and it was pleasant to watch 

 them in their own homes, myself unseen, 

 when after stealthy, silent progress through 

 the sombre and soundless depths of the 

 woods I came upon them going about the or- 

 dinary business of their lives. The lumbering, 

 self-confident gait of the bears, their burly 

 strength, and their half-humorous, half-fero- 

 cious look, gave me a real insight into their 

 character; and I never was more impressed 

 by the exhibition of vast, physical power, 

 than when watching from an ambush a 

 grizzly burying or covering up an elk car- 

 cass. His motions looked awkward, but it 

 was marvellous to see the ease and absence 

 of effort with which he would scoop out 

 great holes in the earth, or twitch the heavy 

 carcass from side to side. And the proud, 

 graceful, half-timid, half-defiant bearing of 

 the elk was in its own way quite as note- 

 worthy; they seemed to glory in their own 

 power and beauty, and yet to be ever on the 

 watch for foes against whom they knew they 

 might not dare to contend. The true still- 



