XIII 

 THE SELKIRKS REVISITED 



THE next spring — for we held to our determination 

 to again match wits with the Selkirk grizzlies — ^we 

 reached our old hunting grounds during the first week of 

 May, Mr. G. O. Shields being also of the party. This 

 time, however, in pursuance of a plan settled upon during 

 the winter, we took along three dogs, purposing to see what 

 could be accomplished by running the bear. We hired 

 these from a man who bred them for running coyotes and 

 cougars, but who guaranteed them to run " anything that 

 wore hair," and we paid fifty dollars for the use of the 

 three for the trip, agreeing that if we wished to keep any of 

 them, or if any of them were lost, we would pay one hun- 

 dred dollars each for them. They were a cross between 

 the foxhound and the bloodhound, and had good speed, 

 being able to run down a coyote in a few hours. 



When we arrived at our former camp, we found that 

 an old trapper had already moved in on snow-shoes and 

 had about a dozen traps set. He had not yet caught any 

 bear, although he had seen two the day before our arrival, 

 and, as we did not care to run hundred-dollar dogs among 

 set bear traps, Coleman decided to buy the old fellow out 



and have the field to ourselves. It took two days' talking 



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