Catnping and H^inting in the Skoshone 



bear-hunter in the West, who has claimed 

 royalty, I understand, on seventy grizzlies, 

 thinks he never killed any over that weight. 

 I understand, from one of the men who 

 accompanied Colonel Pigot, that he car- 

 ries a steelyard that weighs up to three 

 hundred and fifty pounds, and by this 

 means has obtained an idea, and a fairly 

 accurate one, of the weight of some of his 

 largest trophies. My prize animal, killed 

 last year, measured nine feet three inches 

 from his nose to his heels, and certainly, 

 though in good condition, did not go over 

 nine hundred pounds. My hunter thinks 

 he has never seen one weighing more than 

 a thousand ; and he has killed as many bears 

 as most men — outside of story-books. 



The largest bear any of us ever saw was 

 a cinnamon that came within an inch of 

 killing one of my inen, a good hunter and 

 first-class guide — Charles Huff. (I may 

 refer to the big cinnamon, too, as an in- 

 stance of the danger that sometimes attends 

 trapping the bear.) He had set his traps 

 near Sunlight, in the spring, and was un- 

 able to visit them for a week. When he 

 got to the bait, trap and log were gone. 

 After taking up the trail, he soon found 

 the remnants of his log chewed to match- 

 wood ; the bear, evidently a large one, had 



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