THE PRESIDIO OF JANOS. 335 
creatures had a severe tug of it; and although I 
ascended slowly on foot, I reached the summit nearly 
an hour before all the wagons got up. 
Here we found a party of from forty to fifty emi- 
grants with ten ox teams. While waiting for our wagons 
to come up, we seated ourselves beneath the trees, and 
entered into conversation with these people, who were 
quite an intelligent party, both of men and women. 
The usual inquiries were made of us about the road 
and the prospects in California. The women were very 
inquisitive, chiefly as to the difficulties they had yet to 
encounter. They had already been five months on 
their journey from Arkansas, and had lost several of 
their party by death; and one of the men had had a 
narrow escape from a large brown bear but an hour 
before, on the hill we were now about to descend. The 
skin of the animal lay before us, bearing authentic tes- 
timony to his immense size. 
It seems that as three of the men were scouring the 
adjoining woods, one of them discovered this bear, 
and discharged his rifle at him. The bear limped off 
into an adjacent thicket; the man followed; and as he 
approached the animal’s place of concealment, the infu- 
riated creature sprang from the thicket and seized 
him. He was of course thrown, when a hard struggle 
took place for the mastery. The bear bit him severe- 
ly in the leg; while the man, after a violent effort, suc- 
ceeded in getting his knife from its sheath, and plunged 
it into the animal’s body. The struggle took place on 
the brow of a steep hill, and near the brink of a preci- 
pice some twenty feet in height. Over this they both 
fell together, the bear, fortunately, being underneath, 
