174 In the United States vi 



border ruffians in Kansas, but when Miss Bird and 

 George Kingsley made his acquaintance he was a 

 trapper living in a hut — ' it looked like the den of a 

 wild beast ' — at the only entrance to Estes Park. 

 His location there was regarded by the few people 

 who then frequented the district as a nuisance, for 

 Jim was dangerous with his pistols, and it would 

 have been much more pleasant for peaceably 

 disposed citizens had he been located elsewhere. 

 He possessed, without doubt, many bad qualities, 

 but he seems equally without doubt to have possessed 

 many good ones, and probably the verdict which 

 was once pronounced upon him by the man w^ho 

 subsequently killed him is the best — 'When he's 

 sober Jim's a perfect gentleman, but when he's had 

 liquor he's the most awful ruffian in Colorado.' ^ 



The following account of the closing scenes of 

 his eventful life was found among the Doctor's 

 miscellaneous papers : — 



' I was in one of the wildest lateral branches of 

 Estes Park, fondly believing that I was about to 

 kill, " all alone by my own self," as the children say, 

 a reasonably-sized bear whose tracks showed that he 

 was but a little way in advance of me and that he 

 was unaware of my presence. I was revelling in 

 the perfect noiselessness of my post-ursine prowl 

 and of nature generally, when I was suddenly heart- 

 stricken by the most fearful yellings and bowlings 



1 Miss Bird will, I trust, forgive me for making the quotations from 

 her book. 



