A COLORADO BEAR HUNT 



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changed directions, we saw them cross into the second 

 valley. Here again they took a good deal of time to 

 puzzle out the trail, and became somewhat scattered. We 

 had dismounted and were standing by the horses' heads, 

 listening to the baying and trying to decide which way 

 we should go, when Stewart suddenly pointed us out a 

 bear. It was on the other side of the valley from us, and 

 perhaps half a mile away, galloping down hill, with two 

 of the hounds after it, and in the sunlight its fur looked 

 glossy black. In a minute or two it passed out of sight 

 in the thick-growing timber at the bottom of the valley; 

 and as we afterward found, the two hounds, getting mo- 

 mentarily thrown out, and hearing the others still baying 

 on the cat trail, joined the latter. Jake started off to go 

 around the head of the valley, while the rest of us plunged 

 down into it. We found from the track that the bear 

 had gone up the valley, and Jake found where he had 

 come out on the high divide, and then turned and re- 

 traced his steps. But the hounds were evidently all after 

 the cat. There was nothing for us to do but follow them. 

 Sometimes riding, sometimes leading the horses, we went 

 up the steep hillside, and as soon as we reached the crest 

 heard the hounds barking treed. Shorty and Skip, who 

 always trotted after the horses while the hounds were in 

 full cry on a trail, recognized the change of note im- 

 mediately, and tore off in the direction of the bay, while 

 we followed as best we could, hoping to get there in time 

 for Stewart and Lambert to take photographs of the lynx 

 in a tree. But we were too late. Both Shorty and Skip 

 could climb trees, and although Skip was too light to 



