Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/23

A HUNT FOR A GRIZZLY A mining prospector, who was also a great hunter, while locating claims camped in a wild canon of the Sierra Nevada mountains, near the Needles in California. Late one afternoon while seeking a place to pitch his tent he came upon a band of Indians, who told him that a few hours before they had passed a gigantic grizzly bear. They pointed out as nearly as possible the spot where the brute had been seen, and then told the hunter that he had better go and kill it. Wishing him good luck they passed on.

Before daybreak the next morning the hunter started off in quest of his prey. He soon came to the tracks of the bear and followed them up into a dark canon. Presently he came across a cluster of bees buzzing angrily around a tree stump from which their nest had been torn. This was a sure sign that the bear could not be far off. The hunter pushed on rapidly, but he was not prepared for what happened next. On turning a corner he suddenly found himself face to face, with a huge grizzly bear.

The beast was sitting up on its haunches licking its paws, which were still covered with honey from the bees' nest. For an instant the bear gazed in astonishment at the hunter; and then, growling angrily, started toward him as though quite ready to eat him up. The hunter shouldered his rifle and fired, but missed a vital spot, and only succeeded in making the brute furious. It was not a good place for a fight, so the hunter ran back as fast as he could, pausing only to fire once more; and this time the bullet entered the animal's chest, but did not disable it and so end the attack.

The hunter was now desperate, and as a last chance ran in among the pines. The bear, in spite of its bulk and its wounded chest dashed between the trees after its enemy as nimbly as a cat. Once only did the hunter gain any advantage, and that was when the bear stumbled over a fallen tree trunk.

The hunter had managed to cross a narrow ravine when suddenly he heard a crash and a roar overhead, and before he realized what was happening, an avalanche was well started. He scrambled near a big rock for safety and looked back just in time to see the bear swept off its feet and go rolling down the hillside amid a shower of rocks and snow. The bear made frantic efforts to gain a foothold, but without success.

After the dust had subsided and the rocks had ceased falling the hunter crept down in the path of the avalanche. Near the bottom, almost buried in the snow, he found the bear lying dead, its claws sunk deep in a pine branch to which it must have clung as it went down. The hunter took the skin home, damaged and torn as it was, as a memento of his most exciting experience in the Sierra Nevada mountains.