152 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



ed over the pack, and tried the flavor of both flaps and 

 stirrup leathers of my saddle. To obtain water to wash 

 my gun out with, I melted a quantity of snow in my soli- 

 tary cooking-dish ; for the foe I was about to encounter, I 

 was well aware, would fight me with tooth and claw till 

 death separated us, and on a miss or hang-fire depended 

 my life. 



I can not say I liked my task. I was not strong or well 

 enough to court such an encounter, and several times I 

 thought, as I followed the tell-tale impressions in the snow, 

 how much rather I would prefer it to be a deer. How- 

 ever, it appeared to me to be kismet, destiny, or aught else 

 you choose to call it, that I should meet the grim giant of 

 the forest in deadly strife. 



About a mile and a half from home so camp is ever 

 called, however humble its appurtenances I came to a 

 place where the grizzly had halted and scratched up the 

 wild cranberries, which, through all low-lying lands in this 

 portion of the country, are abundant ; but it was evident 

 that they were not sufficiently numerous or attractive to 

 detain him long. Again striking the trail, I persistently 

 followed it till I reached some thick timber, much cov- 

 ered with windfalls. Through such obstacles progress is 

 naturally slow, and difficulties to your advance numerous. 

 Moreover, in such a place one has to be doubly guarded, 

 for on every side, in front, in rear, the upturned roots or 

 labyrinth of semi-decayed limbs can be formed into an am- 

 buscade. But Bruin was not a rifleman, and did not avail 

 himself of these natural lurking-places, so I reached the 

 farther side of the belt of timber without seeing a foe, for 

 which I was heartily thankful ; but as I straddled the last 

 log which intervened between me and the open land, not 

 twenty yards to my front I perceived the object of my 

 search reared up to full length against a dead tree, as if 



