CHAPTER XVII 



ECHO MOUNTAIN GRIZZLY 



AIRIZZLY bear's tracks that I came upon 

 had the right forefoot print missing. 

 The trail of this three-legged bear was 

 followed by the tracks of two cubs strangely 

 like those of barefooted children clearly im- 

 pressed in the snow. These tracks were only 

 a few hours old. 



Hoping to learn where this mother grizzly 

 and her cubs came from I back-tracked through 

 the November snows in a dense forest for about 

 twenty miles. This trail came out of a lake- 

 dotted wooded basin lying high up between 

 Berthoud Pass and James Peak on the western 

 slope of the Continental Divide. The three- 

 legged mother grizzly was leaving the basin, 

 evidently bound for a definite, far-off place. 

 Her tracks did not wander; there had been no 

 waste of energy. A crippled bear with two cub 

 children and the ever T possible hunter in mind 

 has enough to make her serious and definite. 



But the care-free cubs, judging from their 

 tracks, had raced and romped, true to their 



229 



