Trail and Camp-Fire 



across a good-sized bear, and finally, after a 

 hot chase, brought him to bay on a narrow 

 trail running around a huge cliff, where we 

 killed him. His death struggles sent him 

 over the cliff and to the rocks below. All 

 of these circumstances brought vividly to 

 Cherry's mind an adventure which happened 

 to him some years before, while hunting bear 

 in the Sierra Madre Mountains. The country 

 was rough and almost impassable on horse- 

 back, and finally he came to such a place that 

 he was compelled to dismount and seek a way 

 out on foot. He found a narrow trail with a 

 high bluff above him and a precipice below, 

 and had reconnoitered this for some distance 

 when he saw,, rounding the turn ahead of him, 

 a huge California grizzly. He had left his ride 

 behind him, so hastened to make retreat in 

 good order, but on turning the curve behind 

 him, he beheld to his horror another grizzly 

 coming in the opposite direction. For thou- 

 sands of feet, so it seemed to Cherry, the cliff 

 rose above him almost perpendicularly, and 

 the descent into the canon below was just as 

 steep. Most men in a similar predicament 

 would have ceased to think of the affairs of 

 this earth and concentrated their attention on 



64 



