314 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



Sure enough, they did see one bear when they came 

 in sight of the dead caribou ; it was a grizzly, and the 

 bullets flew thick and fast as the beast fled before 

 them. They wounded the bear in the right hip, and 

 the men returned, much crestfallen, without him. 



The hunter who had shot it decided to go out for 

 home by the stage that day, as he said his time was up, 

 and his guide then laid siege to our " W. J.," asking 

 him to postpone his going until the _next trip of the 

 stage and to accompany him upon an expedition in 

 search of the wounded bear. 



This project looked good to our comrade. They 

 mutually clasped hands upon the proposition, got a pair 

 of trusty horses, some grub, and on Tuesday morning 

 off they went, full of hope and enthusiasm. The trail 

 of the bear was easily found by the quantity of blood 

 which he had lost, but it was not so easy to hold, as 

 the bleeding was not by any means continuous. 



It led them to the peak of the mountain and then 

 downward. The men tethered their horses near the 

 top and followed it around and around the sides of the 

 mountain ; it seemed to be continually descending. 

 This made the hunters believe that its wound prevented 

 it from going upward, and that its only recourse was 

 to go down ; so they went down until darkness nearly 

 overtook them, and, of course, a climb back again to 

 the horses was necessary, the climb being a distance of 

 fifteen hundred feet. 



