g first cut off his tail when at full
speed, or relating whimsical anecdotes of the bourgeois Papin. At last
he snatched up a volume of Shakespeare that was lying on the grass, and
halted and stumbled through a line or two to prove that he could read.
He went gamboling about the camp, chattering like some frolicsome ape;
and whatever he was doing at one moment, the presumption was a sure
one that he would not be doing it the next. His companion Troche sat
silently on the grass, not speaking a word, but keeping a vigilant eye
on a very ugly little Utah squaw, of whom he was extremely jealous.

On the next day we traveled farther, crossing the wide sterile basin
called Goche's Hole. Toward night we became involved among deep ravines;
and being also unable to find water, our journey was protracted to
a very late hour. On the next morning we had to pass a long line of
bluffs, whose raw sides, wrought upon by rains and storms, were of a
ghastly whiteness most oppressive to the sight. As we ascended a gap
in these hills, the way was marked by huge foot-prints, like those of
a human giant. They were the track of the grizzly bear; and on the
previous day also we had seen abundance of them along the dry channels
of the streams we had passed. Immediately after this we were crossing a
barren plain, spreading in long and gentle undulations to the horizon.
Though the sun was bright, there was a light haze in the atmosphere.
The distant hills assumed strange, distorted forms, and the edge of
the horizon was continually changing its aspect. Shaw and I were riding
together, and Henry Chatillon was alone, a few rods before us; he
stopped his horse suddenly, and turning round with the peculiar eager
and earnest expression which he always wore when excited, he called
to us to come forward. We galloped to his side. Henry pointed toward a
black speck on the gray swell of the prairie, apparently about a mile
off. "It must be a bear," said he; "come, now, we shall all have some
sport. Better fun to fight him than to fight an old buffalo bull;
grizzly bear so strong and smart."

So we all galloped forward together, prepared for a hard fight; for
these bears, though clumsy in appearance and extremely large, are
incredibly fierce and active. The swell of the prairie concealed the
black object from our view. Immediately after it appeared again. But now
it seemed quite near to us; and as we looked at it in astonishment,
it suddenly separated into