BEAR STORIES 107 



would have made them restless. We had a big 

 job between the two of us to turn him over and 

 skin the other side, and we estimated that he 

 weighed at least nine hundred pounds, but was 

 probably more. On the back and rump he had a 

 layer of fat four inches thick. This immense 

 thickness of fat and the long hair had deceived 

 me as to my first shot, which had ploughed through 

 the fat and just cleared the back bone, the shock 

 of which had been sufficient, however, to make 

 him fall. My second one had struck behind the 

 shoulder, breaking one rib and tearing a portion 

 of the lung, but as he was turning when I fired, 

 it had gone too far behind on the other side to do 

 much damage to his vital parts. When the meat 

 and skin were ready, Lieutenant Waite went for 

 my horse, leading him up by the lariat and blind- 

 folding him with his coat, so that I could load 

 and jack the skin and meat on him. He was very 

 fidgetty and pranced around a good deal, but I 

 managed to finish my work. As soon, however, 

 as to the lieutenant removed his coat, he gave an 

 awful snort and broke loose, dashing down the 

 gully. Very luckily the long lariat was trailing 

 behind and Lieutenant Waite jumping on his 

 horse, managed to overtake and stop him by get- 

 ting his horse to tramp on the trailing lariat. 

 After some little petting he quieted down and we 

 had no further trouble, eventually reaching our 

 camp about five p.m. The other hunting party 



