A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 89 



been pressed close, and evidently had not the slightest 

 idea of putting herself of her own free will within the 

 reach of the pack, which was now frantically baying at 

 the foot of the tree. I shot her through the heart. As 

 the bullet struck she climbed up through the branches 

 with great agility for six or eight feet; then her muscles 

 relaxed, and down she came with a thud, nearly burying 

 herself in the snow. Little Skip was one of the first dogs 

 to seize her as she came down; and in another moment 

 he literally disappeared under the hounds as they piled 

 on the bear. As soon as possible we got off the skin and 

 pushed campward at a good gait, for we were a long 

 way off. Just at nightfall we came out on a bluff from 

 which we could overlook the rushing, swirling brown 

 torrent, on the farther bank of which the tents were 

 pitched. 



The stomach of this bear contained nothing but buds. 

 Like the other shes killed on this trip, she was accom- 

 panied by her yearling young, but had no newly born 

 cub; sometimes bear breed only every other year, but 

 I have found the mother accompanied not only by her 

 cub but by her young of the year before. The yearling 

 also had nothing but buds in its stomach. When its skin 

 was taken off, Stewart looked at it, shook his head, and 

 turning to Lambert said solemnly, " Alex., that skin isn't 

 big enough to use for anything but a doily." From that 

 time until the end of the hunt the yearlings were only 

 known as " doily bears." 



Next morning we again went out, and this time for 

 twelve hours steadily, in the saddle, and now and then 



