126 The Grizzly Bear 



any hint thatthe dogs gave us. We had turned them out one 

 morning for a few minutes' exercise, and akhough startled 

 when they immediately bolted howling across the creek, 

 when they stopped barking after running a few hundred 

 yards, we paid no further attention to them; but when they 

 did not come back by the time we were through lunch, we 

 decided to go after them. The truth is that we were rather 

 uneasy because, when the old trapper had left, he had told 

 us of one trap that he had forgotten to spring, and we had 

 promised to attend to it; but it had slipped our minds, and 

 now that the dogs were out we became worried about it. 

 He had told us where it lay, and I started to go up and 

 spring it, but as I crossed the creek I stopped about half- 

 way over to listen, thinking I heard the dogs, and just as I 

 halted, the bark on the log gave way and I shot down, 

 striking my side heavily on the log and breaking two ribs. 

 After climbing out of the creek and getting my breath, I 

 dragged myself up to the trap and sprung it, and then got 

 back to camp, and when Coleman came in we took some 

 flour sacks, made a corset for my broken ribs, and then sat 

 down and waited for the dogs. They did not return, how- 

 ever, until some time in the night, when they came in and 

 stuck their cold noses in our faces. We tied them up and 

 returned to bed, deciding to go up-stream in the morning 

 and find out what they had been doing. 



After an early breakfast we started, and not over two 

 hundred yards from camp we saw bear tracks that meas- 

 ured eight by twelve and a half inches and dog tracks par- 

 alelling them on either side. This bear, evidently, had not 

 run; he had crossed the creek and walked steadily along up 

 the trail. Every little while we could see where he had 



