en miles to a perfect tangle of
ravines and valleys where bear sign was very thick; and not of black
bear either, but of grizzly. The black bear (the only one we got on the
mountains) he had run across by accident.

Merrifield's tale made me decide to shift camp at once, and go over to
the spot where the bear-tracks were plentiful. Next morning we were off,
and by noon pitched camp by a clear brook, in a valley with steep,
wooded sides.

That afternoon we again went out, and I shot a fine bull elk. I came
home alone toward nightfall, walking through a reach of burnt forest,
where there was nothing but charred tree-trunks and black mold. When
nearly through it I came across the huge, half-human footprints of a
great grizzly, which must have passed by within a few minutes. It gave
me rather an eery feeling in the silent, lonely woods, to see for the
first time the unmistakable proofs that I was in the home of the mighty
lord of the wilderness.

That evening we almost had a visit from one of the animals we were
after. Several times we had heard at night the musical calling of the
bull elk--a sound to which no writer has as yet done justice. This
particular night, when we were in bed and the fire was smoldering, we
were roused by a ruder noise--a kind of grunting or roaring whine,
answered by the frightened snorts of the ponies. It was a bear which had
evidently not seen the fire, as it came from behind the bank, and had
probably been attracted by the smell of the horses. After it made out
what we were, it stayed round a short while, again uttered its peculiar
roaring grunt, and went off; we had seized our rifles and had run out
into the woods, but in the darkness could see nothing; indeed it was
rather lucky we did not stumble across the bear, as he could have made
short work of us when we were at such a disadvantage.

Next day we went off on a long tramp through the woods and along the
sides of the canyons. There were plenty of berry bushes growing in
clusters; and all around these there were fresh tracks of bear. But the
grizzly is also a flesh-eater, and has a great liking for [v]carrion. On
visiting the place where Merrifield had killed the black bear, we found
that the grizzlies had been there before us, and had utterly devoured
the carcass, with cannibal relish. Hardly a scrap was left, and we
turned our steps toward where lay the bull elk I had killed. It was
quite late in the afternoon when we reached the place