THE GRIZZLY BEAR 271 



ter, and talked with the wounded Mr, Frank and his 

 friend Mr. Clark just after the battle, said they had no 

 doubt that the story was not exaggerated. 



Mr. Frank and his friend were shooting in Wyo- 

 ming, and having killed their allowance of other game, 

 were looking for bears. Near a small lake they dis- 

 covered fresh tracks and followed them into a little 

 canyon, on one side of which the wall was a per- 

 pendicular cliff, several hundred feet high, and on the 

 other there was an almost perpendicular embankment 

 of willows. At the point where the encounter took 

 place, the canyon broadened, on one side of the creek, 

 into a sage-brush flat, about two hundred yards in 

 width. 



As the two hunters rode into the valley, they saw 

 one large grizzly, which stood up on his haunches, and 

 immediately saw other bears until, Mr. Frank says, 

 the brush " seemed alive " with them. When his 

 horse, which was a spirited animal, had first scented 

 the bears he began to get " troublesome," but he forced 

 him up the creek toward the willows until they came 

 in sight of the game. Clark's horse was a gentle ani- 

 mal, and he easil}^ dismounted and tired, dropping one 

 of the bears in his tracks; but when Mr. Frank dis- 

 mounted, he had trouble with his horse while trying to 

 get his Winchester from the saddle-sling. The horse 

 reared, plunged, and kicked, and at length gave a 

 mighty leap, escaped, and ran off with the gun. 

 Clark's horse followed. There was a great com- 

 motion in the brush. Another bear got on a rock, and 

 Clark shouted: "The wood is full of them. Great 

 God — look at 'cm." 



