A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 83 



he broke bay and started off, threatening the foremost of 

 the pack as they dared to approach him. They were all 

 around him, and for a minute I could not fire; then as 

 he passed under a pinyon I got a clear view of his great 

 round stern and pulled trigger. The bullet broke both 

 his hips, and he rolled down hill, the hounds yelling with 

 excitement as they closed in on him. He could still play 

 havoc with the pack, and there was need to kill him at 

 once. I leaped and slid down my side of the gully as 

 he rolled down his; at the bottom he stopped and 

 raised himself on his fore quarters; and with another 

 bullet I broke his back between the shoulders. 



Immediately all the dogs began to worry the carcass, 

 while their savage baying echoed so loudly in the narrow, 

 steep gully that we could with difficulty hear one another 

 speak. It was a wild scene to look upon, as we scrambled 

 down to where the dead bear lay on his back between 

 the rocks. He did not die wholly unavenged, for he had 

 killed one of the terriers and six other dogs were more 

 or less injured. The chase of the bear is grim work for 

 the pack. Jim, usually a very wary fighter, had a couple 

 of deep holes in his thigh; but the most mishandled of 

 the wounded dogs was Shorty. With his usual dauntless 

 courage he had gone straight at the bear's head. Being 

 such a heavy, powerful animal, I think if he had been 

 backed up he could have held the bear's head down, and 

 prevented the beast from doing much injury. As it was, 

 the bear bit through the side of Shorty's head, and bit 

 him in the shoulder, and again in the hip, inflicting very 

 bad wounds. Once the fight was over Shorty lay down on 



