tly been little disturbed; indeed, the Indians and
most of the white hunters are rather chary of meddling with "Old
Ephraim," as the mountain men style the grizzly. The bears thus seemed
to have very little fear of harm, and we thought it likely that the bed
of the one who had fed on the elk would not be far away.

My companion was a skillful tracker, and we took up the trail at once.
For some distance it led over the soft, yielding carpet of moss and pine
needles, and the footprints were quite easily made out, although we
could follow them but slowly; for we had, of course, to keep a sharp
look-out ahead and around us as we walked noiselessly on in the somber
half-light always prevailing under the great pine trees.

After going a few hundred yards the tracks turned off on a well-beaten
path made by the elk; the woods were in many places cut up by these game
trails, which had often become as distinct as ordinary footpaths. The
beast's footprints were perfectly plain in the dust, and he had lumbered
along up the path until near the middle of the hillside, where the
ground broke away and there were hollows and boulders. Here there had
been a windfall, and the dead trees lay among the living, piled across
one another in all directions; while between and around them sprouted up
a thick growth of young spruces and other evergreens. The trail turned
off into the tangled thicket, within which it was almost certain we
should find our quarry. We could still follow the tracks, by the slight
scrapes of the claws on the bark, or by the bent and broken twigs; and
we advanced with noiseless caution.

When in the middle of the thicket we crossed what was almost a
breastwork of fallen logs, and Merrifield, who was leading, passed by
the upright stem of a great pine. As soon as he was by it, he sank
suddenly on one knee, turning half round, his face fairly aflame with
excitement; and as I strode past him, with my rifle at the ready, there,
not ten steps off, was the great bear, slowly rising from his bed among
the young spruces. He had heard us, but apparently hardly knew exactly
where or what we were, for he reared up on his haunches sideways to us.

Then he saw us and dropped down again on all-fours, the shaggy hair on
his neck and shoulders seeming to bristle as he turned toward us. As he
sank down on his fore feet, I had raised the rifle; his head was bent
slightly down, and when I saw the top of the white bead fairly between
his