A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



frightened foxhound was released, to disappear in the wake of 

 the pack. Nevertheless, the Carpenters, who were in a better 

 position to see than Fuguet or I, claimed that when they first 

 viewed the struggle between the bear and dogs, Biggs was 

 the leader in the fray. 



Two of the men climbed down into the canon on foot, w^hile 

 Fuguet, the cook, and I made the mistake of loping our horses 

 along the uneven rim, paralleling the invisible chase by the 

 sounds that came drifting up through the pinons. At length 

 we dismounted and slid part w^ay down the side of the canon 

 to where we had several indistinct glimpses of bear and dogs in 

 the narrow, brushy creek-bottom far below. Then the echoes 

 were shattered by a continual fusillade of shots from the Win- 

 chesters of the two Carpenters, w^ho w^ere farther down in the 

 depths of the gorge. They afterward claimed that the female 

 had beaten off the pack, and was swimming and floundering 

 down the creek toward safety in the rougher lower part of the 

 caiion before they opened fire. We suspected that they hated 

 to be left out of the sport, and disliked to miss so excellent an 

 opportunity to down the bear. At any rate, after a number of 

 shots, one of them killed the animal. It proved to be an average- 

 sized female cinnamon. 



One of the yearlings climbed up the side of the cafion within 

 one hundred and fifty yards of me, stopping repeatedly to 

 regain its breath. But it was so small that I allow^ed it to dis- 

 appear among the rocks above. The other yearling scaled the 

 opposite side of the canon, with most of the pack baying on 

 its trail. Four of the hounds never came back, and the several 

 that returned had their faces and mouths plentifully filled with 

 quills from an encounter with a porcupine. 



As the quills of this animal are covered with minute barbs, 

 when they have once secured a hold in the flesh they never 

 drop out, but with every movement of the muscles are driven 

 farther into the unfortunate victim. In this manner they will 



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