MY GRIZZLY-BEAR DAY 167 



hide of his grizzly as without a photograph of the dead 

 animal. 



I said to Charlie that we must take the case seriously, 

 and do our best as long as the films held out. 



Now, on the trail and in camp the writer is neither 

 photographer nor cook. He has troubles enough in the 

 departments of taxidermy and osteology. This time, 

 however, I had a borrowed pocket-kodak and three rolls 

 of films, but no skill in the taking of pictures. While 

 I knew how to " compose " a picture, I knew nothing 

 about time-exposures; and besides this, I had great dif- 

 ficulty in finding things in a small finder. 



But that bear had to be photographed, and we went 

 at it seriously. Charlie used up his films, and then I 

 took my turn, as if, like Winkelreid, on my sole arm 

 hung victory. 



In the middle distance, behind the bear, I found a 

 very tall, columnar spruce that rose like a monument 

 high above its neighbors; and that I adopted as the 

 key to the situation. I photographed with bright light, 

 and again with gray, as solemnly as if valuable results 

 were about to be secured; but it was a great strain on 

 Faith. 



A month later, when Mr. E. F. Keller developed my 

 films, and sent me some prints from them, I laughed 

 long. So did Mr. Phillips when I showed him one of 

 the best of my results. Then he was mystified. 



" How on earth did a photographic incompetent like 

 you ever make such a picture as that? " he demanded. 



I replied that in photography an ideal picture is 



