May 2, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
689 
bigger bear was on his feet, uttering low 
growls, jumping and plunging through the long 
grass. Now and then he would rear up on his 
hind legs for a few seconds to peer around 
inquiringly. Just as he did so for the third or 
fourth time one of my bullets took him some¬ 
where behind the fore shoulder, and after tear¬ 
ing madly around as the first bear had done, he 
also began to bolt. Fearing that I should like¬ 
wise lose him, I threw all caution to the winds 
and stood up in plain sight, at the same time 
firing another shot. This shot was also caught 
by mother earth, but it accomplished its pur¬ 
pose in attracting the bear’s attention, for in¬ 
stead of running away, he wheeled about and 
charged. 
The nearer he came the easier he was to hit, 
of course, but my shooting had become de¬ 
cidedly erratic after so much excitement, and 
though hit several times, the bear had not 
checked his speed a particle when he was only 
fifteen feet away. My knees began to quake, 
but I stood my ground nevertheless for one more 
shot. To reach the place where I was standing, 
the bear had to jump into a slight depression of 
the ground, and as he did so he exposed his 
spine. I fired a parting salute at the middle of 
his back and turned without waiting to see the 
result. Being in the pink of condition and in a 
decidedly panicky frame of mind, I made the 
dust fly at a rate of speed that I had heretofore 
not considered myself capable of. I jammed 
two or three more shells into the magazine of 
my gun as I fled, then after covering some thirty 
or forty yards, abruptly faced about confidently, 
expecting to see the bear reaching for my heels. 
But he was done for. The last shot had hit him 
in the spine and he lay flat on his belly. He 
was a fine specimen and must have weighed be¬ 
tween five and six hundred pounds. To my 
great regret I was never able to find the first 
bear. 
The next day Phelps joined me, and after 
hunting deer a few days for fresh meat and un¬ 
successfully trying to get a shot at more bears, 
we went back to the salmon creeks. We had 
hired another Indian guide, who proved to be 
worth his weight in gold, for in a week we 
managed to get four more bears. By this time 
the creeks presented a really extraordinary 
spectacle. They were literally packed with 
hump-backed and dog salmon. It was impos¬ 
sible to wade across without stepping on the 
fish. Many of them were decaying alive and 
dying and a nauseous stench filled the air. Add 
to this the incessant attacks of black flies and 
mosquitoes and the surroundings were far from 
being as agreeable as they had been while we 
enjoyed the hospitality of the miners. 
The next encounter with a bear was when 
Phelps got his first shot at one. We had been 
hunting a certain creek unsuccessfully for a 
couple of days. The wind seemed to be pos¬ 
sessed of a very devil and blew on our backs 
no matter which way we turned. On two oc¬ 
casions we lost what might have been an ex¬ 
cellent opportunity for a shot at big bears, had 
they not been made aware of our presence by 
the wind. One day at noon we returned to the 
creek to examine a huge bear trap we had set 
the night before. Most of our .hunting, as al¬ 
ready stated, was done either early in the morn¬ 
ing or late in the afternoon or evening, and we 
did not expect to meet any bears roaming 
around at that time of day. As we approached 
the creek, Phelps, who was walking ahead, sud¬ 
denly motioned to us to drop on our bellies. 
We did so and he crawled forward for a few 
paces, took aim and fired. At the crack of the 
rifle a series of formidable growls arose from 
the creek, and as we jumped to our feet we saw 
a large brown bear wounded making desperate 
efforts to get away. One more shot finished 
him, and he dropped in the waters of the creek. 
This animal weighed between four and five hun¬ 
dred pounds 
The day after, we removed our camp to an¬ 
other section of the island. Most of our travel¬ 
ing was done in a large Indian dug-out made of 
one piece of timber, which belonged to our 
guide. In this we carried everything we needed. 
We pitched our camp on the beach a few hun¬ 
dred yards from the creek we intended to hunt 
on. It must be understood that though we were 
on salt water, the coast line of the island is so 
irregular, so cut up by bays and inlets, that the 
water was most of the time as smooth as on a 
lake or pond. 
We had not been at our next camping ground 
fifteen minutes and were still unloading our 
provisions and belongings from the canoe, when 
we noticed a smallish grizzly bear some two 
hundred yards away, walking along the beach 
holding a salmon in his mouth. We decided to 
try for a shot at closer range by means of the 
canoe. We therefore all embarked and pushed 
our craft very noiselessly in his direction. He 
arose on his hind legs and eyed the canoe sus¬ 
piciously, but the wind was in our faces, besides 
which we were going so slowly, and bears are 
BROWN BEAR SHOT ON SALMON CREEK. 
