212 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



Suddenly one of the hunters called, "Look 

 out! he's coming!" I broke tree-climbing rec- 

 ords; my horse broke his rope, and I did not catch 

 up with him for two days. Meantime, there 

 was barking and yelping of dogs, bang, whang of 

 rifles, and crashings of brush. The grizzly scat- 

 tered things like a well-placed high explosive 

 shell. 



He got through the line but fell dead a short 

 distance beyond. Three of the dogs were dead, 

 one so badly injured that it was shot, two others 

 had broken legs, and one of the horses received 

 a right or left swing that cracked two ribs. One 

 of the hunters went to the hospital with a 

 broken shoulder. 



The grizzly was fat. In dressing him his 

 stomach was cut open. There was not room in 

 it for a mouse. Through long fasting it had been 

 almost closed by the stomach walls contracting. 

 This contraction during hibernation is common. 



Generally a grizzly does but little eating for 

 ten days or longer after coming out of the winter 

 den. He is not hungry. He is fat and strong 

 from long sleep and rest; and, besides, his stom- 

 ach is so nearly closed from long disuse that he 

 could hardly eat a snowbird. But I did not 

 know these things about a grizzly that day com- 

 ing off Battle Mountain. However, it would not 

 surprise me to see in print before the end of a 



