THE GFilZZLY BEAR. 213 



mountains, a hundred i3ounds is load enough for a pony. 

 Don't burden yourself with great variety of provisions — 

 bacon, coffee, flour, dried apples, and oatmeal, with a few 

 potatoes and onions, carried from the nearest settlement, are 

 all you ought to want. A couple of Dutch-ovens will supply 

 you with the best possible bread; and a large lean-to made 

 of canvas is less cumbersome and as weather-proof as a tent. 

 As to hunters, Frank Chatfield, Charles Huft", and Sam 

 Aldrich are men that I have proved good and true. Their 

 address is Dillworth, Gallatin County, Montana. 



My first hunting expedition included a trip from St. Paul 

 (then almost the western terminus of the railroad) to Van- 

 couver Island, and during that long journey I never saw a 

 Grizzly. One day, coming on the fresh trail of an immense 

 fellow, the Indians i^romptly refused, to take any part 

 whatever in investigating the neighborhood; and as I was 

 a most untrustworthy shot, and had only a double-barreled 

 muzzle-loading rifle, all things considered, perhaps this 

 action of theirs w^as an evidence of their proverbial sagacity. 



My next essay was undertaken thirteen years after, in 

 1881. We had — my friend and I — a magnificent trip; rode 

 all over the Big Horn Mountains, and killed plenty of game 

 — indeed, we could not help it. In those days the mountains 

 were full of Deer, Elk, and Bears, too; but somehow none of 

 us ever saw a Grizzly. I can not to this day understand 

 our want of success. Six trips I have made since then, but 

 I never saw half the amount of fresh Bear-signs which we 

 saw on the western slope of those mountains, on a stream 

 named on the maps Shell Creek. Had I known as much as 

 I know now, I could have made a much larger bag than the 

 one I made on my last trip, when I had extraordinary luck, 

 and killed eight Grizzlies in three weeks, our party account- 

 ing altogether for twelve Bears, two only of the twelve being 

 trapped. I think this is the largest authentic score I have 

 heard of as being made, in late years, in so short a time. 



Tlie first real Grizzly we did see (we once shot a mule in 

 mistake for one) was in a traj). In the eastern woods. Bears 



