Trail and Camp-Fire 



taking up the death-dealing apparatus and let- 

 ting the bear go, but Cherry pleaded for one 

 more trial, and the next morning was at the 

 trap as the sun rose over the hills, to see what 

 had been the result of this last experiment. 

 He found everything just as it had been left 

 the day before. Apparently the bear had 

 either risen later than usual, or had secured 

 his breakfast elsewhere at less personal risk to 

 himself. So Cherry, after examining his rifle, 

 made himself as comfortable as possible be- 

 hind some bushes, and waited. Morning 

 passed and noon came, and still no bear; but 

 shortly after the sun passed the meridian, 

 there was a crashing among the underbrush, 

 and there came into sight what I judge, from 

 Cherry's account, must have been not a grizzly 

 bear, but one of those antediluvian monsters 

 known as a cave bear, which were the terror 

 of our prehistoric ancestors. Cherry was an 

 old campaigner in bear hunting, and not easily 

 dismayed, but the sight of this tremendous 

 brute as he came leaping toward him, clearing 

 the intervening logs at a single bound, and 

 making the earth tremble at each succeeding 

 jump, was so startling as to make him turn 

 "goose-flesh" all over, so that, as he expressed 



60 



