American Big Game in its Haunts 



the meadow in the small lagoons which intersected 

 it in all directions. Every little while the men 

 would ascend the banks with the glasses, thus keep- 

 ing a watchful eye upon the bears' movements. 

 Taking a time when they had fed into the under- 

 brush, we made a quick circle to leeward over the 

 open, then reaching the edge of the thicket, we 

 approached cautiously to a selected watching place. 

 We reached this spot shortly after one o'clock. 

 The bears had entered the woods, so we settled 

 ourselves for a long wait. It was Blake's turn to 

 shoot, which meant that he was to have an undis- 

 turbed first shot at the largest bear, and after he 

 had fired I could take what was left. 



Just before three o'clock three bears again made 

 their appearance. Two were yearlings which in 

 the fall would leave their mother and shift for 

 themselves, and one much larger, which lay just at 

 the edge of the underbrush. Had these yearlings 

 not been with the mother she would not have come 

 out so early in the afternoon, and, as it was, she 

 kept in the shadow of the alders, while the two 

 smaller ones fed out some distance from the woods. 



We now removed our boots, and, with Stereke 

 well in hand, for he smelt the bears and was tug- 

 ging hard on his collar, noiselessly skirted the 

 woods, keeping some tall grass between the bears 



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