386 
IVILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
Bob.”—“ Yes, 2\ dollars, or 2 dollars at least, 
ril get for that skin ; you see there’s no game that 
pays us like the black-tail, and I never let one go 
if I can help it ; they’re easy to shoot, easy to skin, 
easy to dry, and easy to sell at a good price, and 
more than that, they’re handy to pack upon a mule.” 
That little incident having passed, ’we again 
relapsed into silence, and rode slowly forward, with 
a wide-awake look-out on every side. 
We had ridden about a mile, when the fresh 
tracks of bears that had crossed our route caused 
a sudden halt, and we immediately dismounted to 
examine them. They were of average size, and 
there could be no doubt, from the short stride of 
each pace, that they were retiring leisurely, after 
a night’s ramble, to the beds in which they usually 
laid up. We led our horses to a small glade of 
good grass that was not far distant, and left them 
in the usual manner. 
We now commenced tracking, which was simple 
enough, as the heavy footprints were distinct, and 
the bears had been travelling tolerably straight 
towards home.’ At length, after nearly a mile of 
this easy work, we arrived at a portion of the 
forest where some hurricane must in former years 
have levelled several hundred acres. The trees 
were lying about in confused heaps, piled in many 
places one upon the other, in the greatest confusion. 
None of them were absolutely rotten, but the 
branches were exceedingly brittle, and, if broken, 
they snapped like a pistol shot, making a noiseless 
