CHAPTER II 



A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 



IN mid-April, nineteen hundred and five, our party, 

 consisting of Philip B. Stewart, of Colorado Springs, and 

 Dr. Alexander Lambert, of New York, in addition to my- 

 self, left Newcastle, Col., for a bear hunt. As guides and 

 hunters we had John Goff and Jake Borah, than whom 

 there are no better men at their work of hunting bear 

 in the mountains with hounds. Each brought his own 

 dogs; all told, there were twenty-six hounds, and four 

 half-blood terriers to help worry the bear when at bay. 

 We travelled in comfort, with a big pack train, spare 

 horses for each of us, and a cook, packers, and horse 

 wranglers. I carried one of the new model Springfield 

 military rifles, a 30-40, with a soft-nosed bullet a very 

 accurate and hard-hitting gun. 



This first day we rode about twenty miles to where 

 camp was pitched on the upper waters of East Divide 

 Creek. It was a picturesque spot. At this altitude it was 

 still late winter and the snow lay in drifts, even in the 

 creek bottom, while the stream itself was not yet clear 

 from ice. The tents were pitched in a grove of leafless 

 aspens and great spruces, beside the rushing, ice-rimmed 

 brook. The cook tent, with its stove, was an attractive 

 place on the cool mornings and in stormy weather. Fry, 



68 



