ON THE PRAIRIE 



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men. A friend of mine, a ranchman in 

 Montana, told me that one fall bears became 

 very plenty around his ranches, and caused 

 him severe loss, killing with ease even full- 

 grown beef-steers. But one of them once 

 found his intended quarry too much for him. 

 My friend had a stocky, rather vicious range 

 stallion, which had been grazing one day near 

 a small thicket of bushes, and, towards eve- 

 ning, came galloping in with three or four 

 gashes in his haunch, that looked as if they 

 had been cut with a dull axe. The cowboys 

 knew at once that he had been assailed by 

 a bear, and rode off to the thicket near which 

 he had been feeding. Sure enough a bear, 

 evidently in a very bad temper, sallied out 

 as soon as the thicket was surrounded, and, 

 after a spirited fight and a succession of 

 charges, was killed. On examination, it was 

 found that his under jaw was broken, and 

 part of his face smashed in, evidently by the 

 stallion's hoofs. The horse had been feeding 

 when the bear leaped out at him but failed 

 to kill at the first stroke; then the horse 



