weet buns, enclosing
nice bits of tobacco, or a pinch of snuff, that I should encounter one
of his brethren among the wilds of California, with the joke entirely
the other way. We never halted until a good mile lay between Bruin's
paws and our own, then we could see him lazily walking along the crest
of a hill, with a saddle of venison in his dainty jaws. One of the
horses in his anxiety to be foremost in the race, leaped over the boy,
inflicting an unpleasant hoof tap on the ribs--fortunately the injury
was not serious, and we contrived to catch one and lasso the other; but
may the devil catch that bear, I was obliged to leave my strapping bucks
to his tender mercies, and return to the ship, scared and chagrined
beyond measure--laughed at, of course; still I deemed it far preferable
than to be hugged to death, with the only consolation left in knowing
that what part of one is not devoured will be carefully buried,
according to custom, for another meal.

There is scarcely a resident in the mountains of Upper California who
has not, at one time or another, been attacked by these formidable
beasts. I saw the scars, left by the claws of one, on the broad back of
a fine old Irishman; and he informed me, that after being torn from the
saddle, he feigned death, until his friends, who were in sight, came
up, and drove some balls into the beast, who never for a moment before
removed his powerful jaws from within two inches of his victim's face.
They are extremely hard to kill, and unless the bullets take effect in
the head or heart, are only rendered the more infuriated.

Previous to the adventure at Sousoulito, I had been in the habit of
expending all my powder and prowess on Angel Island. It is a very
picturesque little spot, about three miles in circumference, rising to
the height of near eight hundred feet, and radiating in numberless
ridges and ravines down to the water's edge. There are many fertile
slopes luxuriating in fine trees and vegetation, and on all sides pure
rills of water leaping into the bay. Lying in a wide sweep of the San
Francisco, within a mile of the main land, the deer resort there in
great numbers, to feed on the palatable herbs growing on the northern
sides, and also for the close shelter afforded, beneath multitudes of
the densest network of tangled thickets that ever man or quadruped has
explored. Angel Island will for ever be a bright oasis in my hunting
career, as it was the ground of my maiden