224 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



sections of the country, all Bears and Wolves. Cattle-men 

 have had constant recourse to poison, and hence, once cattle 

 arrive in a country, even in small numbers, Bears soon dis- 

 appear. 



Some years ago, many Bears used to come down to feed 

 on the dead salmon on the upper waters of the Snake and 

 Salmon Rivers. I believe Bears are somewhat plentiful in 

 those neighborhoods still; but, for some reason or another, 

 large Bears were not commonly found. In Southern Mon- 

 tana, Grizzlies are fairly common in the Granite Range, 

 lying between the Northern Pacific Railroad and Clarke's 

 Fork; but a great deal of hunting has been done in that 

 region. In Colorado, Bears are becoming scarce. Even in 

 the loneliest parts of Wyoming, of late, Bears of any size 

 have been hard to find. On my last trip, I hunted perti- 

 naciously, many times going away from camp with nothing 

 but my blankets and a little grub, and staying away for 

 days; yet I only succeeded in killing one large Bear. 



Perhaps some account of this incident may not be alto- 

 gether uninteresting. We had been camping for some 

 weeks in a green hollow, almost ten thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea. A grove of nut-pines sheltered our lean-to, 

 where men and hunters slept, and right before our tent a 

 fairy fountain rose, spread into a clear pool, and then rushed 

 down the- valley. It was an ideal hunting-camp, and from 

 it, with our glasses, we could cover a great deal of country. 

 During our stay in that camp we saw more than twelve 

 Bears, but, though the immediately surrounding country 

 certainly had not been hunted before for many years, these 

 were unusually shy. We had no traps with us, and though 

 several Bears came stealthily to what was left of the one or 

 two carcasses of Elk we had killed, they did not come in the 

 daylight, and in vain I sat by them till late in the evening, 

 or crawled noiselessly up to them in the early morning 

 light. In spite of the protest of my companions, I deter- 

 mined to sleep out all night by one of the carcasses, which 

 had been visited by an unusually large Bear. I shall not in 

 a hurry forget that evening. I rolled myself in my Buffalo- 



