A PANORAMIC GRIZZLY-BEAR HUNT 267 



knees, and caused a loss of fully ten per-cent of my horse- 

 power. It was like an addition of eighteen pounds to my 

 weight, until at last I gathered four safety pins from the 

 party, and took a reef in each leg of my trousers, so that 

 they ceased to drag. 



As we slowly climbed, the perspiration ran off my 

 face like rain, and soon I was in a Turkish-bath condition, 

 plus my clothes. 



" Take it easy," said my ever-patient companions. 

 " There's no hurry. Rest whenever you get tired." 



Mack Norboe led the way, choosing the route care- 

 fully with a view to making the climb as easy for me as 

 the ground would allow. His easy " panther stride," 

 as Mr. Phillips aptly called it, seemed absolutely tireless. 

 About every two hundred feet upward, my lungs simply 

 gave out, and I was forced to stop, and pant for my 

 vanished breath. I was disgusted and mortified beyond 

 endurance, and at last even became very angry, but all 

 to no purpose. The sun and the mountain were both 

 inexorable, and my feebly-growing reputation as a moun- 

 taineer melted away forever. How I envied those three 

 one-hundred-and-forty-pound men, in good training, who 

 went up with ease and nonchalance that were almost 

 maddening to see! 



On the way up we passed the carcasses of two of Mr. 

 Phillips's rams, and we saw where they were first seen, 

 how they ran, where they fell, and how they rolled. That 

 was a wonderful chance, to get a bunch of large rams on 

 that open mountain-side, where long-range shooting was 

 practicable, and the shooting had been exceedingly well 



