It rolled over, while the woods resounded
with its savage roaring. Immediately it struggled to its feet and
staggered off; and fell again to the next shot, squalling and yelling.
Twice this was repeated; the brute being one of those bears which greet
every wound with a great outcry, and sometimes seem to lose their feet
when hit--although they will occasionally fight as savagely as their
more silent brethren. In this case the wounds were mortal, and the bear
died before reaching the edge of the thicket.
I spent much of the fall of 1889 hunting on the head-waters of the
Salmon and Snake in Idaho, and along the Montana boundary line from the
Big Hole Basin and the head of the Wisdom River to the neighborhood of
Red Rock Pass and to the north and west of Henry's Lake. During the
last fortnight my companion was the old mountain man, already mentioned,
named Griffeth or Griffin--I cannot tell which, as he was always called
either "Hank" or "Griff." He was a crabbedly honest old fellow, and a
very skilful hunter; but he was worn out with age and rheumatism, and
his temper had failed even faster than his bodily strength.
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