Trail and Camp-Fire 



cover for one's approach. Finally he stopped, 

 and motioned to me to go ahead. *' The 

 watch point is just around that bend," he 

 whispered. I stepped around it, and there 

 the brook-bed debouched into the meadow. 

 Just at its mouth was a small pile of brush, 

 arranged by Fox as a cover. I looked over 

 it, and saw, about fifty yards away, a grizzly 

 bear, standing quartering toward me and my 

 left, with his forefeet resting on something 

 hidden in the bushes below it — apparently the 

 bait. The meadow, which had seemed to be 

 grassy from above, now showed itself waist- 

 high with sarvice berry bushes. The cham- 

 ber of my rifle was still unloaded, and I threw 

 a shell into it; Fox had no gun. The front 

 white Lyman bead came clearly against the 

 bear's left shoulder, and I pulled. She went 

 down with a mufifled roar, and lay out of sight 

 in the bushes, still roaring and groaning. 



Instantly another large bear rose on its 

 hind feet from behind a bush in the center of 

 the meadow, while a third rushed into it from 

 the woods on the right. To my startled im- 

 agination the meadow seemed to be sprouting 

 with grizzlies. The fellow in the center, to 

 judge from his tracks, must have stood over 



254 



