Campitig and Hunting in the Shoshone 



can be heard a long way in still weather. 

 I must, in all truthfulness, say that that 

 bear seemed to be thinking chiefly of his 

 family. He made no charge ; he wanted 

 very badly to go home ; and I ended his 

 career with an express-bullet. 



Not much sport in that, so it seems to 

 me now. And yet, after longing and 

 longing even to see a big bear, and never 

 seeing him ; after finding, sometimes, the 

 ground near our camp all torn up over- 

 night, as we used in 1868; after having 

 had three bears cross the river I was fish- 

 ing in, on Sunday morning (oh! charitable 

 reader, a quiet little stroll by a silver, 

 purling, singing mountain stream, such as 

 w^as Shell Creek, could not offend even 

 the shade of Izaak Walton, though it were 

 taken on Sunday) — yes, I went down 

 that stream not more than three miles, 

 and in the two or three hours I spent 

 in filling my pockets with the trout, no 

 less than three bears, good-sized bears, 

 too, by their tracks, crossed that stream 

 behind me and between me and camp — 

 after such a long time of probation, it 

 was more than exciting to see, here then, 

 at last, the real thing, an unmistakable 

 grizzly. There actually was such a thing 

 as a grizzly in the flesh ! We had begun 



