88 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



saddles and were ready for what lay ahead. It was 

 wholly impossible to ride at the tail of the pack, but we 

 did our best to keep within sound of the baying. Finally, 

 after much hard work and much point riding through 

 snow, slush, and deep mud, on the level, and along, up, 

 and down sheer slopes, we heard the dogs barking treed 

 in the middle of a great grove of aspens high up the 

 mountain-side. The snow was too deep for the horses, 

 and leaving them, we trudged heavily up on foot. The 

 yearling was in the top of a tall aspen. Lambert shot 

 it with his rifle and we then put the dogs on the trail of 

 the old she. Some of the young ones did not know what 

 to make of this, evidently feeling that the tracks must be 

 those of the bear that they had already killed; but the 

 veterans were in full cry at once. We scrambled after 

 them up the steep mountain, and then downward along 

 ridges and spurs, getting all the clear ground we could. 

 Finally we had to take to the snow, and floundered and 

 slid through the drifts until we were in the valley. Most 

 of the time the dogs were within hearing, giving tongue 

 as they followed the trail. Finally a total change in the 

 note showed that they were barking treed ; and as rapidly 

 as possible we made our way toward the sound. Again 

 we found ourselves unable to bring the horses up to where 

 the bear had treed, and scrambled thither on foot through 

 the deep snow. 



The bear was some thirty or forty feet up a tall 

 spruce; it was a big she, with a glossy black-brown coat. 

 I was afraid that at our approach she might come down; 

 but she had been running hard for some four hours, had 



