RUSTLINGS IN THE ROCKIES. 17 



toward the side his game leg was on, just as a chair goes over 

 when one leg falls out of it. Finally Allen braced up so that 

 he could shoot, and turned his Winchester loose on the 

 grizzly. The first shot caught him behind the shoulder, and 

 the second in the neck, but he paid no attention to them 

 more than to stop and scratch the spot with his paw, and 

 then go on after Hiram. But the third shot, fortunately, caught 

 him at the butt of the ear, and dropped him in his tracks. 



By this time Hi. had reached the ledge of rocks that he 

 had started for at first, and which he thought would save him. 

 He had just grasped a thin shelf that stuck out, to pull himself 

 p by, but it broke off, and let him fall to the ground just as 

 the bear dropped, and in his death struggle he caught Joe 

 with*one of his hind feet and threw him more than twenty 

 eet down the hill. Joe gathered himself up, rubbed the mud 

 off his face and hands, felt of arms and legs to see that they 

 were all whole, looked at the great monster, which now lay 

 dead, and as soon as he could recover his breath enough to 

 speak, said, as he shook with terror from head to foot : 

 " Great God, twenty-five years in the mountains, and I never 

 cum as near gettin' killed as that." 



He laid down on the ground, and it was more than an 

 hour before he was able to walk. Allen said his face was as 

 white as the snow in the coulee, excepting the space around 

 his eyes, and that was yellow. Poor old Hiram never recovered 

 from this terrible shock, and died a year afterward. Several 

 who knew him claim that the scare was the direct cause 01" 

 the sickness that ended his life. He was a mental and phy- 

 sical wreck from that time to the day of his death. Allen 

 took from the bear one hundred and eighty-seven pounds of 

 oil, and his skin when stretched and staked out on the ground 

 measured over nine feet wide by ten and a half in length. 

 2 



