EARLY DAY STORIES. 173 



Hell's Canyon — I do not know why so named, unless 

 it is because it is the deepest, roughest, biggest canyon in all 

 that part of the Hills — is about twenty-five miles long with 

 very high, steep, shelving sides, with perpendicular walls in 

 many places, the bottom in some places filled with a tangle 

 of brush, and piles of big rocks that have rolled down from 

 the steep rocky hillsides. The adjacent mountain sides are 

 more or less thickly covered with evergreen timber. If the 

 roughest spot possible is a good place for a bear's den then 

 Hell's Canyon ought to furnish any number of them. 



In this case the den itself was formed by a rock and 

 earth slide from the steep hillside above to a wide ledge of 

 flat rocks which had arrested the slide so that it was piled 

 up in such way as to form a hollow inside the rocks of sev- 

 eral feet in extent with an opening out to the rock ledge, 

 thus forming a den or cave, protected from the wind and 

 storms of winter. In front of the opening or entrance to 

 the den there was, first, a flat, level surface of rock for eight 

 or ten feet, then a perpendicular fall of perhaps eight feet, 

 and next a very steep slope of fifty to seventy-five feet to the 

 bottom of the canyon. 



When Smith and Leavitt went after the bears, they 

 got two other men to go with them — Smith and the two 

 men being armed with repeating rifles, Leavitt having only 

 a large caliber revolver. Arriving at the den the first thing 

 to be done was to find whether or not the bears were at home. 

 It was arranged that Leavitt should carefully approach to 

 the front of the den and find out if he could whether the 

 bears were inside, but it was not intended that they should be 

 disturbed until he had time to withdraw to a safe distance. 

 Leavitt made the reconnoissance all right, and finding the 

 bears at home, instead of quickly retiring he shouted, ''Come 

 on boys, they are here." The bears were not asleep, but in- 

 stead were very much awake, and probably taking the shout 



