A COLORADO BEAR-HUNT 



the baying pack at its heels. We hurriedly dismounted and 

 descended into the canon, in hopes of securing a shot at the bear 

 running ahead of the hounds. 



After I had worked my way down a narrow gully for several 

 hundred yards, I realized from the sound of distant and receding 

 baying 'that the chase was going in the opposite direction, and 

 climbed to where we had first sighted the bear. Here I found 

 two of the Carpenters watching a small week-old cub clinging 

 to the ver^^ top of a tall, slender, dead tree. It kept up a con- 

 tinuous low whining, and would from time to time descend 

 almost to within the grasp of the two men, when it would re- 

 consider and scurry up to the swaying top of the tree. One of 

 the men removed his chaps and boots and attempted to climb 

 the tree, but it was so slender and leaned over such a yawning 

 chasm that he was obliged to abandon the attempt. Then 

 he picked up his Winchester and splintered the wood of the 

 tree- trunk several inches above the head of the cub, at which 

 it came down hand over hand as rapidly as possible. After 

 striking the ground, it ran a few yards and hid its head in a 

 small crevice in the rocks. It was pulled from this insecure 

 hiding-place and wrapped in a coat, in spite of its dimin- 

 utive bawling and attempts to bite with its partly hardened 

 teeth. One of the men carried this small but savage bundle 

 across his saddle as far as the ranch, where the cub was 

 fed on condensed milk and left as a pet for Carpenter's 

 small son. 



Along the lower slopes of the canon the mother doubled 

 and redoubled on her tracks, and had practically distanced all 

 of her canine pursuers when she aflforded Taintor three long- 

 range shots. At a distance of three hundred yards two bullets 

 reached the running bear, which rolled down among the rocks 

 and was already dead when he reached it. After skinning the 

 animal, we again started toward Cebolla, and by steady travelling 

 rode our weary horses up to the ranch-house at eleven o'clock 



263 



