him may be true.

Jeff Martin, a cattleman, who lived in Antelope Valley, and drove his
stock into the mountains in summer, had several meetings with the big
bear, but never managed to get the best of him. When the Monarch
didn't win, the fight was a draw. Jeff had an old buckskin horse that
would follow a bear track as readily as a burro will follow a trail,
and could be ridden up to within a few yards of the game. Jeff and the
old buckskin met the Monarch on a trail and started a bear fight right
away. The Monarch, somewhat surprised at the novel idea of a man
disputing his right of way, stood upright and looked at Jeff, who
raised his Winchester and began working the lever with great industry.
Jeff was never known to lie extravagantly about a bear-fight, and when
he told how he pumped sixteen forty-four calibre bullets smack into the
Monarch's shaggy breast and never "fazed" him, nobody openly doubted
Jeff's story.

He said the Monarch stood up and took the bombardment as nonchalantly
as he would a fusilade from a pea-shooter, appearing to be only amazed
at the cheek of the man and the buckskin horse. When Jeff's rifle was
empty, he turned and spurred his horse back down the trail, followed by
the bear, who kept up the chase about a mile and then disappeared in
the brush. Jeff's theory was that the heavy mass of hair on the bear's
breast effectually protected him from the bullets, which do not have
great penetrating power when fired from a forty-four Winchester with a
charge of only forty grains of powder.

About a week after that adventure the Monarch called at Martin's summer
camp on Gleason Mountain to get some beef. It was about midnight when
he climbed into the corral. The only beef in the corral that night was
on the bones of a tough and ugly bull, and as soon as the Monarch
dropped to the ground from the fence he got into trouble. The bull was
spoiling for a fight, and he charged on the bear without waiting for
the call of time, taking him amidships and bowling him over in the mud
before the Monarch knew what was coming. Jeff was aroused by the
disturbance and went over to see what was up. He saw two huge bulks
charging around in the corral, banging up against the sides and making
the dirt fly in all directions, and he heard the bellowing of the old
bull and the hoarse growls of the bear. They were having a strenuous
time all by themselves, and Jeff decided to let them fight it out in
their own