56 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



frightful dream of the bear. Next morning I was 

 rested but not refreshed, and after a hurried break- 

 fast I hastened down the canon where I had left the 

 dead bear. It seemed at times as if it might all be a 

 dream but no, when I got to the spot there he lay, 

 just as I had left him the night before, dead and 

 cold. Having spent about two hours in taking 

 seventy measurements for future reference, I skinned 

 him. I found that the old fellow had been shot be- 

 fore, for there were two bullets about the size of a 

 forty-four Winchester imbedded in his body, one in 

 his hip and the other in the shoulder. My ball hit 

 him fairly in the neck, cutting the jugular vein and 

 passed entirety through the body, coming out about 

 six inches from the tail near the spine. 



" I was almost worn out, but I carried the meat, 

 skin, and head to the big snow-drift and buried them, 

 and dragged myself to camp, where I ate a light 

 supper and then rolled up in my blankets and slept 

 until dawn next morning." 



During the succeeding days Dyche thoroughly 

 dressed the skin. All fat and flesh were removed 

 and the feet skinned down to the very toe-nails, and 

 all ligaments removed from the bones. A prepara- 

 tion of one part alum and four parts salt was now 

 rubbed all over the skin. The feet and head were 

 folded in and then saturated with a strong solution 

 of the mixture. This operation was repeated in 

 twenty-four hours and then again in twenty-four, 

 and the skin was ready to be hung up to dry. 



