536 
October, 1920 
We saw that he used certain fixed run- 
ways in going up and down canyons. 
Then Frost gave us some parting advice, 
left us his 35 automatic, and went home. 
T HEN the elk began to pour back 
into the Park; singly, in couples, 
in droves, they returned lean and 
scraggy. A few began to drop their 
calves. Then we began to see bear signs. 
The grizzly follow the elk, and after they 
come out of hibernation and get their 
fill of green grass, they naturally take 
to elk calves. Occasionally, they include 
the mother on the menu. 
We also began following the elk. We 
watched at bait. We sat up nights and 
days at a time, seeing only a few un- 
favorable specimens, and these were as 
wild and wary as deer. We found the 
mosquitoes more deadly than bear. We 
tracked big worthy old boys round in 
circles, and had various frustrated en- 
counters with she bears and cubs. 
They say that the Indians avoided 
Yellowstone, thinking it a land of evil 
spirits. In our wanderings, however, 
we picked up on Steamboat Point a beau- 
tiful red chert arrow head, undoubtedly 
The female grizzly sprawled out on the hillside. 
W E soon found plenty of bear signs, 
and the bear found us. We be- 
gan to lay plans to ambush the 
enemy. In the meantime, they captured 
our supply trains, getting everything 
that was not enclosed in tin. 
The moon was nearly full. We built 
a blind on the up-hill side of a steep 
bear trail, some forty yards off. With 
fallen trees and a rocky eminence be- 
tween us and the trail, we utilized a 
natural point of vantage. Here we pro- 
posed to stand our ground. 
So we watched early and late. The 
first night bear passed us, dim shadows 
shuffling by. We distinguished an old 
female and three yellow cubs, but did not 
deem her suitable for our purpose. And 
then the big fellow came along. 
Our first view of him was from a dis- 
tant, trail at dusk. He strode down the 
mountain side like an impetuous mon- 
arch, — magnificent! As large as a horse 
and having that grand, supple sti-ength 
given to no other predatory animal. He 
was dark brown, with just a suggestion 
of rust and silver on his coat. 
The next night we heard him pass. 
He was chasing a large black bear and 
treed him back in the timber a couple 
of hundred yards. Such growls and 
roars one seldom hears. As he ran, the 
big fellow made a noise like an elephant, 
his claws clattered on the rocks, and the 
ground shook beneath us. We shifted 
the automatic into a more handy posi- 
tion, and filed a fresh meat cutting edge 
on our arrows. It is humiliating to ad- 
mit we had the automatic along, but ex- 
periments are sometimes costly. 
Next night we decided to get one of 
the little cubs if we could. The old sow 
came along. I was detailed to pot the 
infant. Choosing the one that nearly 
(continued on page 565) 
Ned Frost, Dr. Pope and Arthur Young with the trophies of their first encounter 
it is more common to try to keep them 
from eating at the same table with the 
family, but not a single bear, black, 
brown, or silver-tipped, called upon us. 
We traveled all over that beautiful 
Park, from Mammoth to the Lake. We 
hunted over every well known bear dis- 
trict, Tower Falls, Mt. Washburn, Dun- 
raven Pass, (under 25 feet of snow), 
Antelope Creek, Specimen Ridge, Buffalo 
Pens, Steamboat Point, Cub Creek, Pel- 
ican Meadows, and kept the rangers 
busy looking out for bear. From eight 
to fifteen hours a day we hunted. We 
raked the side hills and valleys with our 
glasses. But bear were as scarce as 
hens’ teeth. We saw some few tracks, 
but nothing compared with those seen 
in other years. 
We began to have a sneaking idea that 
the bear had all been killed off. We 
knew they had been a pest to campers, 
wrecking automobiles and chasing visi- 
tors up trees. We suspected the Park 
authorities of quiet extermination. 
shot by an Indian at an elk years be- 
fore Columbus burst in upon these good 
people. In Hayden Valley we found an 
obsidian spear head, — another sign that 
the Indian knew good hunting grounds. 
But no Indian was ever half so anx- 
ious to meet grizzly as we were. Our 
party began to disintegrate. My brother 
and the judge had to return to Detroit. 
A week or so later Ned Frost and the 
cook had to go back to Cody. Before 
they left us, however, they packed Young 
and me with our bows and arrows, bed 
rolls, a tarp and a couple of boxes of 
grub upon the head of Cascade Creek. 
We had received word from the rang- 
ers that there was an old bear traveling 
between Tower Falls and the Canyon, 
killing elk around Dunraven Pass. Frost, 
Young and I scouted over this area and 
found his tracks — eleven inches long. 
