156 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



Working off to the right around several rock buttresses, which at 

 first we took to be the main peak, we came in sight of the final rock- 

 wall. It was then half-past six, and the aneroid indicated that we 

 had ascended 4400 feet. We sat down on the grassy meadow for a 

 moment's rest, as the work had been hard. I was reflecting that 

 there was not much daylight left for climbing the thousand feet of 

 rock-wall, which had not proved easy going even for Muir, when 

 suddenly Bob became electrified and uttered the magic word"Bear!" 

 "We go after him — what you say?" Unwilling to turn back, but 

 knowing the force of the hunting instinct, and believing that we 

 might make another ascent in the morning, I yielded. The bear was 

 below us in the dwarf evergreens on a steep slope and had not seen 

 us. As our only weapon was an army automatic pistol, I noted with 

 some satisfaction that his color was black, indicating that he was 

 not a grizzly. The Indians say that the winds travel up the slopes 

 in the day and down at night, but the air was so nearly still that we 

 could not be certain in which direction our scent was traveling. I 

 knew Bob to be a good hunter, and we made a detour downward 

 rapidly and nearly noiselessly. Our only chance was to try for a 

 close shot. We came over a little wooded crest, and there, across a 

 small ravine, was the bear, one hundred yards distant, already on 

 the run. My firing had no more serious effect than to accelerate his 

 speed, and he bounced out of sight down the slippery carpet of ever- 

 greens like a big rubber ball. Bob's stalk had been letter-perfect for 

 a grizzly, but his smaller black cousin keeps moving and thus ren- 

 ders stalking more or less a matter of chance. 



I was soon to learn something of what Muir and his injured com- 

 panion went through in their descent by night, as the light was fad- 

 ing fast. When we reached the thick brush I was divided between 

 the fear of getting branches in my eyes and, in my frequent slips, of 

 falling on the point of my ice-axe, a useless encumbrance on such a 

 mountain. In the alder thickets I was reduced to crawling through 

 such holes as already existed, as my weight, unlike the massive Bob, 

 was insufficient to part the branches. Frequently we lost each other 

 in the darkness. The hope of a warm supper at the cabin of the 

 river-boat's pilot decided us to go on to Glenora, although it was 

 then nine o'clock. As we rode down what had been the main street 

 in the once busy town, not a sound reached our ears and not a ray of 

 light greeted the eye from the dimly discerned rows of cabins on 



