BUY A NEW PONY. 311 



down on the top of the rock, taking a blanket with me as the 

 nights were very cold. This time the bear was late, and did not 

 arrive till the moon was so high that I feared he would see me, but 

 he came from the opposite side, and the bushes were very thick 

 right up to the bait. He seemed to stand on the edge of these 

 for some time, during which I flattened myself on the top of the 

 rock as much as I possibly could, and then out came his head, 

 his body following very slowly. I waited until he stood well in 

 the light, about thirty yards from me, when I fired at his head 

 under the ear, and he sank at the shot and hardly moved again. 

 This was a very fine bear with a splendid coat, the hair on the 

 crest was fully six inches long and very thick, and the colour 

 black, tipped with grey. I only opened him that night, 

 returning in the morning with Fishel to skin him, when we 

 found that he measured seven feet eleven inches before he was 

 skinned, and we estimated his weight at nine hundred pounds, 

 as he was not very fat. 



One day while we were at breakfast in camp we heard a 

 loud hail, and saw a man, whose face seemed all hair, holding 

 a pony by the bridle and calling to us from the top of a 

 ridge, apparently not caring to come down till he knew that he 

 would be welcome. He proved to be a French Canadian, who 

 had arrived at the prospectors' camp at the Black hills after 

 they had left it, so he had come to us for information as to 

 their whereabouts. We told him that they had done nothing 

 and had returned, so that he must have passed them as he 

 came to us. He decided to go on to some mines near Fort 

 Benton, and left us after having a meal. Before he left I ex- 

 changed one of my ponies for his, giving him some money as well, 

 and it turned out one of the best and toughest little animals I 



