152 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
ed over the pack, and tried the flavor of both flaps and 
stirrup leathers of my saddle. To obtain water to wash 
my gun out with, I melted a quantity of snow in my soli- 
‘tary cooking-dish; for the foe I was about to encounter, I 
was well aware, would fight me with tooth and claw till 
death separated us, and on a miss or hang-fire depended 
my life. 
I can not say I liked my task. I was not strong or well 
enough to court such an encounter, and several times I 
thought, as I followed the tell-tale impressions in the snow, 
how much rather I would prefer it to be a deer. How- 
ever, it appeared to me to be kismet, destiny, or aught else 
you choose to call it, that I should meet the grim giant of 
the forest in deadly strife. 
About a mile and a half from home—so camp is ever 
called, however humble its appurtenances—I came to a 
place where the grizzly had halted and scratched up the 
wild cranberries, which, through all low-lying lands in this 
portion of the country, are abundant; but it was evident 
that they were not sufficiently numerous or attractive to 
detain him long. Again striking the trail, I persistently 
followed it till I reached some thick timber, much cov- 
ered with windfalls. Through such obstacles progress is 
naturally slow, and difficulties to your advance numerous. 
Moreover, in such a place one has to be doubly guarded, 
for on every side, in front, in rear, the upturned roots or 
labyrinth of semi-decayed limbs can be formed into an am- 
buscade. But Bruin was not a rifleman, and did not avail 
himself of these natural lurking -places, so I reached the 
farther side of the belt of timber without seeing a foe, for 
which I was heartily thankful; but as I straddled the last 
log which intervened between me and the open land, not 
twenty yards to my front I perceived the object of my 
search reared up to full length against a dead tree, as if 
