252 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by L,. G. Folsom 



SORTING OUT THE WRECKAGE AFTER THE STORM AT BAKED MOUNTAIN 



We looked and felt very much like rag-pickers on the dumps, but among the wreckage were 

 many of our most cherished possessions (see page 285). 



we found the track of a single bear which 

 had ventured to cross the valley. But in 

 1 9 19 bears were frequent visitors, com- 

 prising - , indeed, the only tourists that had 

 yet visited its confines. Not merely here 

 and there, but in many places, their tracks 

 were to be found all through the valley. 

 It was not the work of any single bear, 

 nor made at any one time, for the tracks 

 were of many sizes, showing that most of 

 the bears of the region probably enter 

 the place from time to time. 



They were not satisfied with merely 

 crossing through the steaming areas, but 

 were apparently attracted in some degree 

 by the Smokes. Their tracks were often 

 to be found close around the largest 

 vents, even far up toward the head of the 

 valley, where they were many miles from 

 any possible food. From their behavior, 

 indeed, it seems not at all impossible that 

 they may have been attracted by the warm 

 ground and have sought out good places 

 to enjoy the heat, just as a dog stretches 

 out in the hottest place behind the kitchen 

 stove. 



But we could not assure ourselves on 



this point, for we never caught sight of 

 them in the valley, and the ground around 

 the big fumaroles is baked so hard by the 

 heat that only claw-marks remained to 

 show where bruin had walked. If he lay 

 down, his shaggy coat left no mark on the 

 hard crust, so we could not follow all his 

 activities. 



BRUIN STARTS A FUMAROEE OF HIS OWN 



It was not unusual to find tracks of a 

 bear leading straight up to one of the 

 large vents, where he had evidently stop- 

 ped to peer into the mysterious hot hole. 

 In one of the steaming areas Hagelbarger 

 found places where the hot ground had 

 evidently excited the bear's curiosity, for 

 he had dug into it with his claws until he 

 started a small fumarole of his own. 



The appearance of a cloud of steam 

 under his claws as he broke into the hot 

 crust must have provided bruin with a 

 great surprise, but it did not scare him 

 away, for he was not satisfied with a sin- 

 gle experiment; he tried again in several 

 places, each time digging down till he 

 started the steam. 



