Hunting American Big Game 



ridge to where it joined the one the bears 

 were on. We had to creep up a beastly- 

 snowdrift, which was soft, and no telhng 

 how deep. 



It was deep enough, for we went 

 through sometimes to our armpits. But 

 what mattered it when we were at concert 

 pitch, and bear for the tune .? We were 

 now on the same ridge as the bears. Cau- 

 tiously, with the wind just a little aslant, 

 we crawled down toward our prey, cross- 

 ing another miserable snowdrift, into 

 which we went up to our necks, where we 

 brought up, our feet having touched bot- 

 tom. We floundered out behind a small 

 rock, and then looked up over at the bears. 

 Too far to shoot with any certainty ; and 

 I said to Woody, " I must get closer." 

 And so back we crawled. 



Making a little detour, we bobbed up 

 again, not serenely, for the wind was 

 blowing on the backs of our necks straight 

 as an arrow to where the bears were. But 

 we were a little higher up on the ridge 

 than they, and our taint must have gone 

 over them; for when I looked up again 

 one of the bears was chewing a savory 

 morsel, and the other was on his hind legs, 

 blinking at the sun, which was just break- 

 ing through the clouds. Wiping the 



34 



