342 



RECREATION. 



another bullet through his vitals. Again 

 the performance was repeated, and when 

 he again made his appearance it was at the 

 foot of an embankment, which he tried to 

 ascend; but there he stopped, stood up and 

 looked around for the source of his trouble. 

 Then a last deadener went crashing 

 through his heart, and he gave up the 

 ghost. 



We had to swim our horses to get to him, 

 but when darkness closed in, we had him 

 dressed and hanging in camp. Every 

 shot was a mortal one, but you have to 

 give those fellows time to die. 



We had cached our heavy supplies in the 

 Mancomen country, hence we had several 



salmon, tied it to my saddle for supper 

 and remarked that it was a likely place 

 for a bear, when out of the brush with a 

 snort, through the water with a splash, 

 and up the hill bounded a huge grizzly. 

 He stopped about 145 yards away, and, a 

 he stood looking down on me, he looked 

 the monarch of the Northland. I dis- 

 mounted and sent a hard bullet through 

 his vitals. You could have heard him bawl 

 if a mile from there. After the usual roll- 

 ing and tumbling, he came for me like the 

 wind. I sent another ball in front of his 

 left shoulder into his heart cavity. 

 Another bawl, roll and tumble, and again 

 he came, I knew I was shooting for my 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY GEO. G. CANTWELU 



MAMMOTH REMAINS FOUND IN BOTTOM OF 55-FOOT MINING SHAFT, HUNKER 

 CREEK. KLONDYKE, JANUARY, rpoi, 



loose unloaded horses along. As I never 

 did waste meat I resolved to take what we 

 could kill on our return as far as the min- 

 ing camp on Slate creek, about 30 miles on 

 our way. 



The next morning, while looking for the 

 horses, we saw a caribou standing in the 

 shallow water about 200 yards away. It 

 was a long shot for a 6-shooter, and the 

 first bullet splashed the water under him. 

 He bounded off, but too late to escape, as 

 1 had the range; and the next shot added 

 200 pounds to our load. 



At one time that afternoon, we were 

 traveling along a creek up which thou- 

 sands of salmon were ascending. We 

 were trailing in .single file, myself in the 

 lead, 6 pack horses following, and my com- 

 panion in the rear. I had just shot a red 



life. His head was down and I shot for 

 the top of his neck. If it missed the neck 

 bone, it would reach his vitals. It did the 

 work by shattering the neck bone and pil- 

 ing him up in a heap. I took 43 steps to 

 where he fell. 



My companion remarked that there had 

 been only time enough to get in one more 

 shot, and as he was unarmed and there 

 were no trees within 10 miles it would be 

 interesting if I would state what I had in- 

 tended to do in case I had failed to kill the 

 bear. I resolved never to shoot at a 

 grizzly from open ground if he knew where 

 I was. I broke that resolution about 3 

 weeks later, ran a foot race with a bear, 

 and only made my escape by dodging and 

 jumping down an embankment. It is a 

 wonder to me now that I ever did go back 



