A COLORADO BEAR-HUNT 



work their way through the body of a dog in a comparatively 

 short time, and cause death if they penetrate any vital organs. 

 As porcupines were fairly plentiful in this country, one of the 

 men always carried a pair of pincers in his saddle-bags. He 

 used these to remove the quills which some of the dogs acquired 

 from time to time. This was a very painful operation, and re- 

 quired two men to perform it, one holding down the shrieking 

 and struggling dog while the other extracted the quills. How- 

 ever,, some of the canines did not seem to profit by repeated 

 lessons, and would fearlessly attack the next porcupine they 

 met. Out of the four missing hounds which eventually reached 

 the railroad, and were brought to the ranch by the section- 

 gang, two were so badly studded with neglected quills that 

 Carpenter gave up all hopes of saving them. 



We hunted the next day in some rough and broken country 

 near the Gunnison without finding any bear sign. A small 

 number of big-horn still inhabited , the steeper portions of the 

 caiion of this river, and although we did not see any of these 

 animals we came across their tracks several times. While rid- 

 ing homeward, along the rim of the canon of Ciystal Creek, we 

 discovered a large black bear climbing among the rocks and 

 logs which littered the opposite slope. We watched this animal 

 with field-glasses for almost an hour, and determined to rout it 

 out of its lair the following day. However, on looking out of 

 the cabin door the next morning, we were surprised to find a 

 blizzard raging and the air filled with thick clouds of driven 

 snow. This lasted during the whole day and part of the night ; 

 but the next day dawned cold and clear, and we were able to 

 start out on about five inches of clear white snow. For the 

 purpose of signalling to us the whereabouts of the bear, one of 

 the men rode down to the spot from where we had watched it 

 two days before, but he was so small a figure across the wide 

 chasm that we had difficulty in seeing him, let alone under- 

 standing his wigwagging. 



257 



