THE GRIZZLY BEAR. 213 



mountains, a hundred pounds is loud enough for a pony. 

 Don't burden yourself with great variety of provisions- 

 bacon, coffee, flour, dried apples, and oatmeal, with a few 

 potatoes and onions, carried from the nearest settlement, are 

 all you ought to want. A couple of Dutch-ovens will supply 

 you with the best possible bread; and a large lean-to made 

 of canvas is less cumbersome and as w r eather-proof as a tent. 

 As to hunters, Frank Chatfield, Charles Huff, and Sam 

 Aldrich are men that I have proved good and true. Their 

 address is Dillworth, Gallatin County, Montana. 



My first hunting expedition included a trip from St. Paul 

 (then almost the western terminus of the railroad) to Van- 

 couver Island, and during that long journey I never saw a 

 Grizzly. One day, coming on the fresh trail of an immense 

 fellow, the Indians promptly refused to take any part 

 whatever in investigating the neighborhood; and as I was 

 a most untrustworthy shot, and had only a double-barreled 

 muzzle-loading rifle, all things considered, perhaps this 

 action of theirs was an evidence of their proverbial sagacity. 



My next essay was undertaken thirteen years after, in 

 1881. We had my friend and I a magnificent trip; rode 

 all over the Big Horn Mountains, and killed plenty of game 

 indeed, we could not help it. In those days the mountains 

 were full of Deer, Elk, and Bears, too; but somehow none of 

 us ever saw a Grizzly. I can not to this day understand 

 our want of success. Six trips I have made since then, but 

 I .never saw half the amount of fresh Bear-signs which we 

 saw on the western slope of those ^mountains, on a stream 

 named on the maps Shell Creek. Had I known as much as 

 I know now, I could have made a much larger bag than the 

 one I made on my last trip, when I had extraordinary luck, 

 and killed eight Grizzlies in three weeks, our party account- 

 ing altogether for twelve Bears, two only of the twelve being 

 trapped. I think this is the largest authentic score I have 

 heard of as being made, in late years, in so short a time. 



The first real Grizzly we did see (we once shot a mule in 

 mistake for one) was in a trap. In the eastern woods, Bears 



