Hunting American Big Game 



his legs in the air. No need to trifle with 

 this bear's tail, as any fool could see that 

 he was dead. However, we pelted him 

 with a lot of snowballs ; and then Woody 

 went around to his stump of a tail, and 

 pulled it, while I stood guard at his head. 

 We took off our coats, and soon had the 

 skins off the pair of them. These skins 

 proved to be in the finest condition, though 

 the bears themselves were poor. I should 

 judge one was a three-year-old and the 

 other a two-year- old. Still, they were 

 good-sized grizzlies. 



Those skins seemed to grow in size and 

 weight as each of us lugged one up the 

 side of the mountain, over shelving rock, 

 snow, and loose gravel, to where we left 

 our horses. Of course they were not there, 

 and we had to go on carrying the skins, 

 which were growing heavier and heavier 

 every minute, until we tracked our horses 

 to where they were feeding ; and, in West- 

 ern vernacular, " we had a circus" packing 

 those skins on my horse. It was done at 

 last, though, and to stay, by means of blind- 

 folding him with a coat ; and after a little 

 while he settled down to work as though 

 he had carried bears all his many years of 

 service. I had a very nasty time in getting 

 down the mountain after my horse slipped 



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