VI BETTER FORTUNES WITH GREAT BEARS iii 



The next day Little, Nicolai, and I went out in the 

 direction of our last kill. When about two miles from the 

 spot where the carcass lay, we saw a bear feeding on the 

 young grass a few yards from the spot where I first saw 

 the other bear two days before. Even at that distance this 

 fellow looked enormous through the glasses. 



It was evidently a case of another smart bit of running, 

 and off we went. Little leading with his advantage of 6 feet 

 2 inches, and legs in proportion. Both of us were more 

 than a match for Nicolai, who was very blown before we 

 had gone half a mile. On reaching a small knoll about a 

 mile from where we had viewed the bear, we were delighted 

 to see that he was still in the same place, and were just in 

 time to witness a most curious thing. After feeding some 

 time, moving slowly along, the bear reached the exact spot 

 where I had first seen the other one. Here he stopped 

 suddenly, apparently smelling the ground. Taking a look 

 all around, he suddenly whipped quickly to the right-about, 

 and dashed off at a gallop over the brow of the hill. This 

 manoeuvre puzzled me, and I at first imagined he must have 

 winded or heard us. This, however, was impossible, and I 

 knew there must be some other reason for the brute's 

 behaviour. I appealed to Nicolai for an explanation, and 

 he said, " Me think he smellum other bear tracks. He run 

 little way, then lie down." There was nothing for it but to 

 make our way to a point whence we could see the ground 

 lying on the other side of the hill over which the bear had 

 gone. This we did, and on looking down from the spot 

 where we last saw our quarry we could perceive nothing but 

 a dense patch of alders, many acres in extent, covering both 

 sides of a deep ravine through which ran a small mountain 

 torrent. So dense was the brush that it was hopeless to 



