s hit hard and could already see a crimson
streak in the snow. But bruin steadily held his course, in a few
yards further he made an attempt to jump a large fallen tree and I
fired again. This shot was more fatal than the first, and he fell to
the ground and could not rise. I hurried up and fired a shot through
his head which soon quieted him. Mart was soon on the scene and after
a little rejoicing we soon had his hide off, and cutting the fore
parts off and hanging them in a tree to be brought out the next day.
Mart took the saddles and I the skin and started for camp, which we
reached shortly before dark, and as we had prepared things for supper
before leaving in the morning, supper was soon ready which consisted
of buckwheat cakes, wild honey, baked potatoes, bacon, bear steak and
tea. Dear readers, do not tell Mart, but I think that he took a hot
toddy after talking the hunt over and over. Again, we laid down to
rest our weary selves and dream of the hunt which may never come.

CHAPTER XI

Pacific Coast Trip.

As I am always looking for taller timber to plant my traps in and as
the drift of the trapper seems to be to the west, the Rockies and the
Pacific Coast, and as I have had some experience in the Rockies, and
along the Pacific Coast region, I will speak of some of the
advantages and disadvantages that the trapper will meet with in that
section.

The trapper will find the fur bearers more plentiful and many more
kinds of animals to take, than is found in the East, which is a great
advantage to the trapper. The hunter will find deer quite plentiful
in many places in the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific Coast. In
1904 I was in Humboldt and Trinity Counties, California and I found
deer so plentiful and tame that it was no sport to shoot them. While
the law limited the hunter to two deer in a season, the people in the
mountains made their own laws, as to the number of deer that they
should kill. Black and brown bear are plentiful all through the Rocky
Mountains and in the Coast ranges. You see much written of the
grizzly bear in this region, but it is doubtful if a hunter or
trapper would see one or even the track of one during a whole
season's trapping. The trapper will find marten, fisher and lynx in
many places in the Rockies and in the Coast Range but nothing to what
there was a few years ago.

Now one who is contemplating trapping in the Rockies or on the
Pacific Coast, must bear in mind that the c