COLD HOSPITALITY. 25 



party of Englishmen and took measures to prevent a 

 repetition of the insults. Johnson said he had been 

 partly revenged on the Englishmen, as a silver-tip 

 grizzly bear had demolished their camp which they 

 had made about a mile from the ranch. 



The Englishmen were there to get a bear and were 

 supplied with all that money could buy in the way 

 of hunting outfits and delicacies for the table. They 

 were great hunters (in their own estimation) and 

 bragged continuaUy about the big game which they 

 had slaughtered. Bear-tracks were plentiful on 

 the mountain, and day after day was spent by 

 the whole party looking for the animals. One 

 night, on returning after a fruitless hunt, they 

 found that the grizzly had shown his American 

 contempt for all things British and had literally 

 captured the camp. It hardly seemed possible that 

 one bear could do so much damage in so short 

 a time. Sacks of sugar had been torn open, eaten, 

 and trampled on the ground ; dried fruit was scat- 

 tered over the whole place ; cracker-boxes had been 

 opened and the contents chewed and stamped in 

 the dirt ; flour-sacks were torn to pieces and the con- 

 tents made into a paste and trodden into the earth ; 

 a hundred pounds of bacon was trampled, torn, and 

 bitten until its usefulness was gone ; a box of candles 

 was chewed up and spewed over the ground ; three 

 sacks of different-sized shot had been torn open, the 

 contents thoroughly mixed and so scattered that they 

 were of no more value ; the tobacco case was opened 

 and several pounds of smoking and chewing tobacco 

 strewed around and mixed with the general mess 



