84 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



the hillside, unable to move. When we started home we 

 put him beside a little brook, and left a piece of bear meat 

 by him, as it was obvious we could not get him to camp 

 that day. Next day one of the boys went back with a 

 pack-horse to take him in; but half-way out met him 

 struggling toward camp, and returned. Late in the after- 

 noon Shorty turned up while we were at dinner, and stag- 

 gered toward us, wagging his tail with enthusiastic de- 

 light at seeing his friends. We fed him until he could not 

 hold another mouthful ; then he curled up in a dry corner 

 of the cook-tent and slept for forty-eight hours; and two 

 or three days afterward was able once more to go hunting. 

 The bear was a big male, weighing three hundred and 

 thirty pounds. On examination at close quarters, his fur, 

 which was in fine condition, was not as black as it had 

 seemed when seen afar off, the roots of the hairs being 

 brown. There was nothing whatever in his stomach. 

 Evidently he had not yet begun to eat, and had been but 

 a short while out of his hole. Bear feed very little when 

 they first come out of their dens, sometimes beginning on 

 grass, sometimes on buds. Occasionally they will feed at 

 carcasses and try to kill animals within a week or two 

 after they have left winter quarters, but this is rare, and as 

 a usual thing for the first few weeks after they have come 

 out they feed much as a deer would. Although not hog 

 fat, as would probably have been the case in the fall, this 

 bear was in good condition. In the fall, however, he 

 would doubtless have weighed over four hundred pounds. 

 The three old females we got on this trip weighed one 

 hundred and eighty, one hundred and seventy-five, and 



