‘. by ERNEST THOMPSON SETON 4 SPL LUNIINE TE PTET RR Mn i - oe CPE OPEEEPEL DEL EE OPE PUP eee’ Oe SF - : Atithor of _ BSS of the Sandhill Sfag ae V Wild Animals I Have Known Art aiouie of Animals eee of Manitoba Birds of Manitoba Published by The Century Co. New York.A.D.1918 \ |. Copyright, 1899, 1900, by i The Century Co. Cy Copyright, 1900, by Ernest Seton- Thompson. First Sixth Eleventh Impression Impression Impression ‘hay nae November ~ l 1900 1903 1912 Second Seventh Twelfth Impression Impression Impression November May September 6 10 29 1900 1904 1914 Third Eighth Thirteenth Impression Impression Impression January February October 15 15 11 1901 1906 1916 Fourth Ninth Fourteenth Im pression Impression Impression June ene January 1901 1907 1918 Fifth Tenth Fifteenth Impression Impression Impression ov June June , | 1902 1910 1919 ohmr>s This Book is dedicated to the - memory of the days spent at the Palette Ranch on the Gray- bull, where from hunter, miner, personal experience, and the host himself, | gathered many chapters of the History of Wahb. © o> DE >y In this Book the designs for title- page, cover, and general make- up, were done by Mrs. Grace Gallatin Thompson Seton. “pox rs List of Full-Page Drawings ce They all Rushed Under it like a Lot er Little Pigs . . Eee Like Children Playing eHands". < He Stayed in the Tree till near Morn- me . . 6 ee A Savage abet. Maca Him to memack . . . hiwlen =e Wahb Yelled and ieigs Back ae He Struck one Fearful, Crushing Blow _ Ain’t He an Awful Size, Though? . . Wahb Smashed His Skull . . . . Causing the Pool to Overflow .. . He ply Stood bes on the Pine Rdet. . Bis The Beet hack Fled i into rie ods. He Paused a Moment at the Gate . 44 50 74 90 102 113 142 150 165 PART I ee CUBHOOD OF WAHB “ord I SS > score of years ago, va NSE | | TT S2ed PP away up in the wild- iA rane E was born over a 10 \) y) / SX est part of the wild EEE oa West, on the head of the Little Piney, above where the Palette Ranch is now. His Mother was just an ordinary Silvertip, living the quiet life that all Bears prefer, minding her own business and doing her duty by her family, asking no favors of any one excepting to let her alone. s~ It was July before she took her remarkable family down the Little Piney to the Graybull, and showed them what strawberries were, and where to find them. Notwithstanding their Mother's deep conviction, the cubs were not remarkably big or bright; yet they were aremarkable family, for there were four of them, and it is not often a Grizziy Mother can boast of more than two. The woolly-coated little crea- tures were having a fine time, and reveled in the lovely mountain sum- mer and. the abundance of good things. Their Mother turned over each log and flat stone they came to, and the moment it was lifted they all rushed under it like a lot fi 13) 4) ‘a ~ ps Mi a. iy he of os iY fat a ssox rg abo >s of little pigs to lick up the ants and grubs there hidden. It never once occurred to them that Mammy’s strength might fail sometime, and let the great rock drop just as they got under it; nor would any one have thought so that might have chanced to see that huge arm and that shoulder sliding about under the great yei- low robe she wore. No, no; that arm could never fail. The little ones were quite right. So they bustled and tumbled one another at each fresh log in their haste to be first, and squealed little squeals, and growled little growls, as if each was a pid, a pup, and a kitten all rolled into one. They were well acquainted with the common little brown ants that harbor under logs in the uplands, but now they came for the first time on one of the hills of the great, fat, luscious Wood-ant, and they all crowded around to lick up those that ran out. But they soon found that they were licking up more cac- tus-prickles and sand than ants, till their Mother said in Grizzly, ‘ Let me show you how.” She knocked off the top of the hill, then laid her great paw flat on it for a few moments, and as the angry ants swarmed on to it she licked them up with one lick, and got a Sood rich mouthful to crunch, without a grain of sand or a cactus- stingerinit. Thecubssoon learned. Each put up both his little brown paws, so that there was a ring of paws all around the ant-hill, and . 2 « ey ad her » 4 s a KE CHILDREN PLAYING ‘HANDS.’” Ll sé sbWE>e there they sat, like children playing ‘hands,’ and each licked first the right and then the left paw, or one cuffed his brother’s ears for licking a paw that was not his own, till the -ant-hill was cleared out and they were ready for a change. Ants are sour food and made the Bears thirsty, so the old one led down to the river. After they had drunk as much as they wanted, and dabbled their feet, they walked down the bank to a pool, where the old one’s keen eye caught sight of a number of Buffalo-fish basking on the bottom. The water was very low, mere pebbly rapids between these deep holes, so Mammy said to the little ones: : ‘Now you all sit there on the bank and learn something new.” First she went to the lower end of the pool and stirred up a cloud of mud which hung in the still water, and sent a long tail floating like a curtain over the rapids just below. Then she went quietly round by land, and sprang into the upper end of the pool with all the noise she could. The fish had crowded to that end, but this sud- den attack sent them off in a panic, and they dashed blindly into the mud-cloud. Out of fifty fish there iS always a good chance of some being fools, and half a dozen of these dashed through the darkened water into the current, and before they knew it they were struggling over the shingly shallow. The old Grizzly jerked them out to the bank, and the little ones rushed noisily on these funny, short snakes that could not get away, and gob- bled and gorged till their little bellies looked like balloons. They had eaten so much now, and the sun was so hot, that all were quite sleepy. So the Mother- bear led them to a quiet little nook, andas soonasshe lay down, though | they were puffing with heat, they all snuggled around her and went to sleep, with thei: little brown paws curled in, and their little black noses tucked into their wool as though it were a very cold day. After an hour or two they began to yawn and stretch themselves, except little Fuzz, the smallest; she poked out her sharp nose fora moment, then snuggled back be- | Pat \? - e (iil hot % MT il ey \ tween her Mother's great arms, for she was a gentle, petted little thing. The largest, the one after- ward known as Wahb, sprawled over on his back and began to worry a root that stuck up, grum- bling to himself as he chewed it, or slapped it with his paw for not staying where he wanted it. Pres- ently Mooney, the mischief, began tugging at Frizzle’s ears, and got hisown well boxed. They clenched for a tussle; then, locked in a tight, little grizzly yellow ball, they sprawled over and over on the grass, and, before they knew it, down a bank, and away out of sight toward the river. Almost immediately there was an outcry of yells for help from the ndwxr>rg> shoxr>y little wrestlers. There could be no mistaking the real terror in their voices. Some dreadful danger was threatening. Up jumped the gentle Mother, changed into a perfect demon, and over the bank in time to see a huge Range-bull make a deadly charge at what he doubtless took for a yel- low dog. In a moment all would have been over with Frizzle, for he had missed his footing on the bank; but there was a thumping of heavy feet, a roar that startled even the great Bull, and, like a huge bound- ing ball of yellow fur, Mother Griz- zly was upon him. Him! the mon- arch of the herd, the master of all these plains, what had he to fear? He bellowed his deep war-cry, and 4 charged to pin the old one to the bank; but as he bent to tear her with his shining horns, she dealt him a stunning blow, and before he could recover she was on his shoul- ders, raking the flesh from his ribs with sweep after sweep of her ter- rific claws. The Bull roared with rage, and plunged and reared, dragging Mo- ther Grizzly with him; then, as he hurled heavily off the slope, she let go to save herself, and the Bull rolled down into the river. This was a lucky thing for him, for the Grizzly did not want to fol- low him there; so he waded out on the other side, and bellowing with fury and pain, slunk off to join the herd to which he belonged. shor>rg Soxr>g EE = —OOOOO SE ace SE RSS SSS See eee ooeeeeooooeoeoaoooooooooloyleeeeoqoq®yeoqoqwyqeoqoc®oS ——___T€__—— SEE ~_.~->-—-—-—-——eee—e—v“«cr SE ——SSSS= jp! SSS ———!2 = a oe — ————————— —————— ——————— << ——_— oe — —<——==——=== SSS ee th oe Ss ZZ ’ = ———_——orws—Ci > —s oad om === ...2a”r-—--00-—™—05000— —=" ~~ _——— — _ ED ae = — er ee Sa SE I] LD Colonel Pickett, the cattle king, was CAD out riding the range. Se IN 2 The night before, he WIFE bad seen the new moon descending over the white cone of Pickett’s Peak. ““Tsaw the last moon over Frank’s Peak,” said he, ‘‘and the luck was against me for a month; now | reckon it’s my turn.” Next morning his luck began. A letter came from Washington 5 ep granting bis request that a post- office be established at his ranch, and contained the polite inquiry, “What name do you suggest for the new post-office ?”’ The Colonel took down his new rifle, a 45-90 repeater. ‘‘May as well,” he said; “‘thisismymonth”’; and he rode up the Graybull to see how the cattle were doing. _ As he passed under the Rimrock Mountain he hearda far-away roar- ing as of Bulls fighting, but thought nothing of it till he rounded the point and saw on the flat below a lot of his cattle pawing the dust and bellowing as they always do when they smell the blood of one of their number. He soon saw that the great Bull, ‘the boss of the bunch,’ shox>t was covered with blood. His back and sides were torn as by a Moun- tain-lion, and his head was battered as by another Bull. Grizzly,” growled the Colonel, for he knew the mountains. He quickly noted the general direction of the Bull’s back trail, then rode toward a high bank that offered a view. This was across the gravelly ford of the Graybull, near the mouth of the Piney. His horse splashed through the cold water and began jerkily to climb the other bank. | As soon as the rider’s head rose above the bank his hand grabbed the rifle, for there in full sight were five Grizzly Bears, an old one and four cubs. “Run for the woods,” growled the Mother Grizzly, for she knew that men carried guns. Not that she feared for herself; but the idea of such things among her darlings was too horrible to think of. She set off to Suide them to the timber- tangle on the Lower Piney. But an: awful, murderous fusillade be- gan. Bang! and Mother Grizzly felt a deadly pang. Bang! and poor little Fuzz rolled over with a scream of pain and lay still. | With a roar of hate and fury Mother Grizzly turned to attack the enemy. Bang ! and she fell paralyzed and dying with a high shoulder shore shot. And the three little cubs, not knowing what to do, ran back to their Mother. Bang! bang! and Mooney and Frizzle sank in dying agonies be- side her, and Wahb, terrified and stupefied, ran in a circle about them. Then, hardly knowing why, he turned and dashed into the tim- ber-tangle, and disappeared as a last bang left him with a stinging pain and a useless, broken hind paw. THAT is why the post-office was called Four-Bears. The Colonel seemed pleased with what he had done; indeed, he told of it himself. But away up in the woods of Anderson's Peak that night a little lame Grizzly might have been seen wandering, limping along, leaving a bloody spot each time he tried to set down his hind paw; whining and whimpering, ‘‘Mother! Mo- ther! Oh, Mother, where are you?” for he was cold and hungry, and had such a pain in his foot. But there was no Mother to come to - ' : ¥ ' a 4 a ‘ ? = - 4 ; ‘ ! rs i \ i 5 i ee od 3 id = » y ra , A $ « j 2 ‘ ' - X . A ; . ; ? * 3 ‘ d, cn ) ; iS d Nal : > , y a tye ea carittirabted tithe tt seontongs neue Meee BEWhLLA So AS BE iad one bse a MAW LANA K \ La AN \ i \\\ ‘i “HE STAYED IN THE TREE TILL NEAR MORNING.” had seen such once before and had not been afraid of them then, be- cause he had been with his Mother. But now he kept very quiet in the tree, and the big creatures stopped picking the grass when they were near him, and blowing their noses, | ran out in sight. , He stayed in the eo till near © morning, and then he was so stiff with cold that he could scarcely getdown. But the warm sun came up, and he felt better as he sought about for berries and ants, for he was very hungry. Then he went back to the Piney and put his wounded foot in the ice-cold water. He wanted to get back to the mountains again, but still he felt he must go to where he had left his Mother and brothers. When the afternoon grew warm, he went limping down the stream through the timber, and down on the banks of the Graybull till he came to the place where yesterday they had had the fish-feast; and he eagerly crunched the heads and remains that he found. But there was an odd and horrid smell on the wind. It frightened him, and as he went down to where he last had seen his Mother the smell grew worse. He peeped out cautiously at the place, and saw there a lot of Coyotes, tear- ing at something. What it was he did not know; but he saw no Mo- ther, and the smell that sickened and terrified him was worse than ever, so he quietly turned back a> IPL toward the timber-tangle of the Lower Piney, and nevermore came back to look for his lost family. He wanted his Mother as much as ever, but something told him it was no use. As cold night came down, he missed her more and more again, and he whimpered as he limped along, a miserable, lonely, little, motherless Bear—not lost in the mountains, for he had no home to seek, but so sick and lonely, and with such a pain in his foot, and in his stomach a craving for the drink that would nevermore be his. That night he found a hollow log, and crawling in, he tried to dream that his Mother’s great, furry arms were around him, and he snuffled him- self to sleep. IT] > ae had always K been a gloomy little y) Bear andthe string of misfortunes that came on him just as his Tate was forming made him more than ever sullen and morose. It seemed as though every one were against him. Hetriedto keep out of sight in the upper woods of the Piney, seeking his food by day and resting at night in the hollow log. But one evening he found it occupied by a Porcupine as big as himself andasbadasacactus-bush. Wahb could do nothing with him. He had to give up the lod and seek another nest. One day he went down on the Graybull flat to dig some roots that his Mother had taught him were good. But before he had well be- gun, a grayish-looking animal came out of a hole in the ground and rushed at him, hissing and growl- ing. Wahb did not know it was a Badger, but he saw it was a fierce animal as big as himself. He was sick, and lame too, so he limped away and never stopped till he was onaridge in the next cafion. Here a Coyote saw him, and came bound- ing after him, calling at the same time to another to come and join the fun. Wahb was near a tree, so he scrambled up to the branches. The Coyotes came bounding and yelping below, but their noses told them that this was a young Grizzly they had chased, and they soon de- cided that a young Grizzly in a tree means a Mother Grizzly not far away, and they had better let him alone. After they had sneaked off Wahb came down and returned to the Piney. There was better feeding on the Graybull, but every one seemed against him there now that his loving guardian was gone, while on the Piney he had peace at least sometimes, and there were plenty of trees that he could climb when an enemy came. His broken foot was a long time in healing; indeed, it never Jot quite well. The wound healed and the soreness wore off, but it left a stiff- ness that gave him a slight limp, and the sole-balls grew together quite unlike those of the other foot. It particularly annoyed him when he had to climb a tree or run fast from his enemies; and of them he found no end, though never once did a friend cross his path. When . he lost his Mother he lost his best and only friend. She would have taught him much that he had to learn by bitter experience, and would have saved him from most of the ills that befell him in his cubhood— ills so many and so dire that but for his native sturdiness he never could have passed through alive. The pifions bore plentifully that y= ‘an aya % - od . \ 1 i , ‘ ha « ror ' «’ j ; \ ‘ £ , : : * : an: * = Pg bat Fs Wa ‘ \ j a v a! ’ my “ — F Pty ¢ “ ‘ ; © iby ane E . “ f | ~. ' : ~ at ; j -' 4 a 7 : , : - ; 4 - . Fs , 4 y a te ' - " ‘ . i, a ; ~" . sage-brush rattled and fell just over his back. All the dreadful smells and dangers of that day came back to his memory, and Wabb ran as he never had run be- fore. He soon got into a gully and fol- lowed it into the canon. An open- ing between two cliffs seemed to offer shelter, but as he ran toward it a Range-cow came trotting be- tween, shaking her headat him and snorting threats against his life. He leaped aside upon a long log that led up a bank, but at once a savage Bobcat appeared on the other end and warned him to go back. It was no time to quarrel. Bitterly Wahb felt that the world was full of enemies. But he turned \ and scrambled up a rocky bank into the pinon woods that border the benches of the Meteetsee. The Pine Squirrels seemed to resent his coming, and barked furi- ously. They were thinking about their pinon-nuts. They knew that this Bear was coming to steal their provisions, and they followed him overhead to scold and abuse him, with such an outcry that an enemy might have followed him by their noise, which was exactly what they intended. There was no one following, but it made Wahb uneasy and nervous. So he kept on till he reached the timber line, where both food and foes were scarce, and here on the edge of the Mountain-sheep land .. at last he got a chance to rest. S pS > IV his baby sister, and were making him more and more every one against him? If onl bear that had driven him from his er AHB never was the persecutions by sour. Why could not they let him he had his Mother back! If he woods! It did not occur to him = sweet-tempered like Spi) 7s VN “= bis numerous foes alone in his misery? Why was could only have killed that Black- that some day he himself would be big. And that spiteful Bobcat, that took advantage of him; and the man that had tried to kill him. He did not forget any of them, and he hated them all. Wahb found his new range fairly good, because it was a good nut year. He learned just what the Squirrels feared he would, for his nose directed him to the little gran- aries where they had stored up great quantities of nuts for winter's use. It was hard on the Squirrels, but it was good luck for Wahb, for the nuts were delicious food. And when the days shortened and the nights began to be frosty, he had drown fat and well-favored. He traveled over all parts of the Cafion now, living mostly in the «MOVE GaNdar GNV Ga'rida q#HVM, arta neeneifibenadis higher woods, but coming down at times to forage almost as far as the river. One night as he wandered by the deep water a peculiar smell reached his nose. It was quite pleasant, so he followed it up to the water’s edge. It seemed to come from a sunken log. As he reached over toward this, there was a sud- den clank, and one of his paws was caught in a strong, steel Beaver- trap. Wahb yelled and jerked back with all his strength, and tore up the stake that held the trap. He tried to shake it off, then ran away through the bushes trailing it. He tore at it with his teeth; but there it hung, quiet, cold, strong, and im- movable. Every little while he tore at it with his teeth and claws, or beat it against the ground. He buried it in the earth, then climbed a low tree, hoping to leave it be- hind; but still it clung, biting into his flesh. He made for his own woods, and sat down to try to puzzle it out. He did not know what it was, but his little green- brown eyes glared with a mixture of pain, fright, and fury as he tried to understand his new enemy. He lay down under the bushes, and, intent on deliberately crushing the thing, he held it down with one paw while he tightened his teeth on the other end, and bearing down asit slid away, the trap jaws opened and the foot was free. It was mere chance, of course, that led him to squeeze both springs at once. He did not understand it, but he did not forget it, and he got these not very clear ideas: ‘ There isa dread- ful little enemy that hides by the water and waits for one. It has an odd smell. It bites one’s paws and is too hard for one to bite. But it can be got off by hard squeezing,’ For a week or more the little Grizzly had another sore paw, but it was not very bad if he did not do any climbing. It was now the season when the Elk were bugling on the mountains. Wahb heard them all night, and once or twice had to climb to get f away from one of the big-antlered f Bulls. Itwas also the season when , the trappers were coming into the 47 ee Ce RG ; 2 mar a oS - eal. SF, rn ie ‘ce ? fo ane ee a a ak a mountains, and the Wild Geese were honking overhead. There were several quite new smells in the woods, too. Wahb followed one of these up, and it led to a place where were some small logs piled together; then, mixed with the smell that had drawn him, was one that he hated—he remem- bered it from the time when he had lost his Mother. He sniffed about carefully, for it was not very strong, and learned that this hateful smell was on a log in front, and the sweet smell that made his mouth water was under some brush be- hind. So he went around, pulled away the brush till he got the prize, a piece of meat, and as he grabbed it, the log in front went down with a heavy chock. eee et a ee ee a a —— a aT Wart j ay bd at “wae ee LAN NT Gd. t ad ces A Y os It made Wahb jump; but he got away all right with the meat and some new ideas, and with one old idea made stronger, and that was, ‘When that hateful smell is around it always means trouble.’ As the weather grew colder, Wahb became very sleepy; he slept all day when it was frosty. He had not any fixed place to sleep in; he knew a number of dry ledges for sunny weather, and one or two sheltered nooks for stormy days. | He had a very comfortable nest un- der a root, and one day, as it began to blow and snow, he crawled into this and curled up to sleep. The storm howled without. The snow fell deeper and deeper. It draped the pine-trees till they bowed, then shook themselves clearto be draped RA oe 2 a. See 1 Ke MG? Aisee mn ig no Gy a se es “A mac Ye nay . wee Ue, is 2. Pr (Ca mn ae at © =. ASS aio A It drifted over the moun- tains and poured down the funnel- anew. like ravines, blowing off the peaks and ridges, and filling up the hol- lows level with their rims. It piled up over Wahb’s den, shutting out the cold of the winter, shutting out itself: and Wahb slept and slept. z= \ iN te ee t A ’ * VEIN Ne \ \ wy. ohh Ose aes . NY YAY . V E slept all winter with- > out waking, for such - is the way of Bears, SA HXt and yet when spring - 4 SS came and aroused him, he knew that he had been asleep a long time. He was not much changed—he had grown in height, and yet was but little thin- ner. He was now very hungry, and forcing his way through the deep drift that still lay over his den, he set out to look for food. There were no pifion-nuts to get, and no berries or ants; but Wahb’s nose led him away up the cafion to the body of a winter-killed Elk, where he had a fine feast, and then buried the rest for future use. Day after day he came back till he had finished it. Food was very scarce for a couple of months, and after the Elk was eaten, Wahb lost i; all the fat he had when he awoke. Is One day he climbed over the Di- & vide into the Warhouse Valley. It VE Ps was warm and sunny there, vege- Se tation was well advanced, and he = a found good forage. He wandered down toward the thick timber, and soon smelled the smell of another mr Grizzly. This grew stronger and V4 led him to a single tree by a Bear- , trail, Wahb reared up on his hind SSS SSE SSS ee: Oe eT 7" ee? al s?™t, ebor>rs feet to smell this tree. It wasstrong of Bear, and was plastered with mud and Grizzly hair far higher than he could reach; and Wahb knew that it must have been a very large Bear that had rubbed him- self there. He felt uneasy. He used to long to meet one of his own kind, yet now that there was a chance of it he was filled with dread. No one had shown him anything but hatred in hislonely, unprotected life, and he could not tell what this older Bear might do. As he stood in doubt, he caught sight of the old Grizzly himself slouching along a hillside, stopping from time to time to dig up the quamash-roots and wild turnips. Hewasamonster. Wahbinstinc- tively distrusted him, and sneaked away through the woods and upa rocky bluff where he could watch. Then the big fellow same on Wahb’s track and rumbled a deep growl of anger; he followed the trail to the tree, and rearing up, he tore the bark with his claws, far above where Wahb had reached. Then he strode rapidly along Wabb’s trail. But the cubhad seen enough. He fled back over the Di- vide into the Meteetsee Cafion, and realized in his dim, bearish way that he was at peace there because the Bear-forage was so poor. As the summer came on, his coat was shed. His skin got very itchy, and he found pleasure in rolling in the mud and scraping his back against some convenient tree. He never climbed now: his claws were too long, and his arms,though growing big and strong, were losing that suppleness of wrist that makes cub Grizzlies and all Blackbears great climbers. He now dropped naturally into the Bear habit of seeing how high he could reach with his nose on the rubbing-post, whenever he was near one. He may not have noticed it, yet each time he came to a post, after a week or two away, he could reach higher, for Wahb was growing fast and coming into his strength. © i Ge Sometimes he was at oneend of “ VO Or the country that he felt was his, and sometimes at another, but he had frequent use for the rubbing- a tree, and thus it was that his range was mapped out by posts with his own mark on them. One day late in summer he sighted a stranger on his land, a glossy Blackbear, and he felt furi- ous against the interloper. As the Blackbear came nearer Wahb no- ticed the tan-red face, the white spot on his breast, and then the bit out of his ear, and last of all the wind brought a whiff. There could be no further doubt; itwas thevery smell: this was the black coward that had chased him down the Piney long ago. But how he had shrunken! Before, he had looked like a giant; now Wahb felt he could crush him with one paw. Re- venge is sweet, Wahb felt, though he did not exactly say it, and he went for that red-nosed Bear. But the Black one went up a small tree like a Squirrel. Wahb tried to fol- low as the other once followed him, but somehow he could not. He did not seem to know how to take hold now, and after a while he gave it up and went away, although. the Blackbear brought him back more than once by coughing in de- rision. Later on that day, when the Grizzly passed again, the red- nosed one had gone. As the summer waned, the up- er forage-drounds began to dive out, and Wahb ventured down to the Lower Meteetsee one night to explore. There was a pleasant odor on the breeze, and following it up, Wahb came to the carcass of a Steer. A good distance away from it were some tiny Coyotes, mere dwarfs compared with those heremembered. Right by the car- cass was another that jumped about in the moonlight in a fool- isk way. For some strange reason it seemed unable to get away. Wahb's old hatred broke out. He rushed up. Ina flash the Coyote bit him several times before, with one blow of that great paw, Wahb smashed him intoa limp, furry rag; then broke in all his ribs with a crunch or two of his jaws. Oh, but it was good to feel the hot, bloody juices oozing between his teeth ! The Coyote was caught in a trap. Wahb hated the smell of the iron, so he went to the other side of the carcass, where it was not so strong, and had eaten but little be- fore clank, and his foot was caught in a Wolf-trap that he had not seen. But he remembered that he had once before been caught and had escaped by squeezing the trap. He set a hind foot on each spring and pressed till the trap opened and released his paw. About the carcass was the smell that he knew stood for man, sohe left it and wan- dered down-stream; but more and more often he got whiffs of that hor- rible odor, so he turned and went back to his quiet pifion benches. 2 EPS PART II THE DAYS OF HIS STRENGTH Pad shmx>y SEA B'S third sume mer had brought him the stature of ~ a large-sized Bear, “= though not nearly gt a and power that in time were his. Hewas very light-col- ored now, and this was why Spah- wat, a Shoshone Indian who more than once hunted him, called him the Whitebear, or Wahb. Spahwat was a good hunter, and as soon as he saw the rubbing-tree on the Upper Meteetsee he knew that he was on the range of a big Grizzly. He bushwhacked the whole valley, and spent many days before he found a chance to shoot; then Wahb got a stinging flesh- woundintheshoulder. Hegrowled horribly, but it had seemed to take the fight out of him; he scrambled up the valley and over the lower hills till he reached a quiet haunt, where he lay down. His knowledge of healing was wholly instinctive. He licked the woundandall aroundit, and sought to be quiet. The licking removed the dirt, and by massage reduced the inflammation, and it plastered the hair down as a sort of dressing over the wound to keep out the air, dirt, and microbes. There could be no better treatment. But the Indian was on his trail. Beforelong the smell warned Wahb that a foe was coming, so he quiet- ly climbed farther up the moun- tain to another resting-place. But again he sensed the Indian’s ap- proach, and made off. Several times this happened, and at length there was a second shot and an- other galling wound. Wahb was furious now. There was nothing that really frightened him but that horrible odor of man, iron,and guns, that he remembered from the day when he lost his Mother; but now all fear of these left him. He heaved painfully up the mountain again, and along under a six-foot ledge, then up and back to the top of the bank, where he lay flat. On came the Indian, armed with knife and gun; deftly, swiftly keeping on thetrail; gloating joyfully overeach bloody print that meant such an- guishtothehunted Bear. Straight up the slide of broken rock he came, where Wahb, ferocious with pain, was waiting on the ledge. On sneaked the dogged hunter; his eye still scanned the bloody slots or swept the woods ahead, but never was raised to glance above the ledge. And Wahb, as he saw this shape of Death relentless on his track, and smelled the hated smell, poised his bulk at heavy cost upon his quivering, mangled arm, there held until the proper att “HE STRUCK ONE FEARFUL, CRUSHING BLOW.” instant came, then to his sound arm’s matchless native force he added all the weight of desperate hate as down he struck one fearful, crushing blow. The Indian sank | without a cry, and then dropped out of sight. Wahb rose, and sought again a quiet nook where he might nurse his wounds. Thus he learned that one must fight for peace; for he never saw that In- dian again, and he had time to rest and recover. I] HE years went on as before, except that each winter Wahb slept less soundly, and each spring he came out earlier and was a bigger Grizzly, with fewer enemies that dared to face him. When his sixth ear came he was a very bid, strong, sullen Bear, with neither friend- ship nor love in his life since that evil day on the Lower Piney. No one ever heard of Wahb’s WwW A H B 77 mate. Noonebelieves that he ever hadone. Thelove-seasonof Bears came and went year after year, but left him alone in his prime as he had been in his youth. It is not good for a Bear to be alone; it is bad for himin every way. His ha- bitual moroseness grew with his strength, and any one chancing to meet him now would have called him a dangerous Grizzly. He had lived in the Meteetsee Valley since first he betook him- self there, and his character had been shaped by many little adven- tures with traps and his wild rivals of the mountains. But there was none of the latter that henow feared, and he knew enough to avoid the first, for that penetrating odor of man and iron was a never-failing warning, especially after an experi- ence which befell him in his sixth year. His ever-reliable nose told him that there was a dead Elk down among the timber. He went up the wind, and there, sure enough, was the great de- licious carcass, already torn open at the very best place. True, there was that terrible man-and-iron © taint, but it was so slight and the feast so tempting that after circling around and inspecting the carcass from his eight feet of stature, as he stood erect, he went cautiously for- ward, and at once was caught by his left paw in an enormous Bear- trap. He roared with pain and slashed about in a fury. But this was no Beaver-trap; it was a big forty-pound Bear-catcher, and he was surely caught. Wahb fairly foamed with rage, and madly grit his teeth upon the trap. Then he remembered his formerexperiences. He placedthe trap between his hind leds, with a hind paw on each spring, and pressed down with all his weight. Butitwasnot enough. Hedradgded off the trap and its clog, and went clanking up the mountain. Again and again he tried to free his foot, but in vain, till he came where a great trunk crossed the trail a few feet from the ground. By chance, or happy thought, he reared again under this and made anew attempt. With a hind foot on each spring and his mighty shoulders under- neath the tree, he bore down with his titanic strength: the great steel springs gave way, the jaws relaxed, and he tore out his foot. So Wahb was free again, though he left behind a great toe which had been -nearly severed by the first snap of the steel. Again Wahbhada painful wound to nurse, and as he was a left- handed Bear,—that is, when he wished to turn a rock over he stood on the right paw and turned with the left,—one result of this dis- ablement was to rob him for a time of all those dainty foods that are found under rocks or lods. The wound healed at last. but he never SoD x PS forgot that experience, and thence- forth the pungent smell of man and iron, even without the gun smell, never failed to enrage him. Many experiences had taught him that it is better to run if he only smelled the hunter or heard him far away, but to fight despe- rately if the man was close at hand. And the cow-boys soon came to know that the Upper Meteetsee was the range of a Bear that. was _ better let alone. iT NE day after a long absence Wahb came Lp into the lower part IN of his range, and saw ANS to his surprise one of the wooden dens that men make forthemselves. Ashecamearound to get the wind, he sensed the taint that never failed to infuriate him now, and a moment later he heard a loud bangand felt astinging shock in his left hind led, the old stiff led. He wheeled about, in time toseea man running toward the new-made SHOE PR shanty. Had the shot been in his shoulder Wahb would have been helpless, but it was not. MIGHTY arms that could toss pine logs like broomsticks, paws that with onetap couldcrush the biggest Bull upon the range, claws that could tear huge slabs of rock from the mountain-side— what was even the deadly rifle to them! WHEN the man’s partner came home that night he found him on the reddened shanty floor. The bloody trail from outside and a shaky, scribbled note on the back of a paper novel told the tale. It was Wahb done it. I seen him by the spring and wounded him. I tried to git on the shanty, but he ketched me. My God, how I suffer] JACK. +7 oo" fer. Lowe Wa Y \ , a It was all fair. The man had invaded the Bear’s country, had tried to take the Bear's life, and had lost hisown. But Jack's part- ner swore he would kill that Bear. Hetook up the trail and followed it up the canon, and there bush- whacked and hunted day after day. He put out baits and traps, and at length one day he heard a crash, clatter, thump, and a huge rock bounded down a bank into a wood, scaring out a couple of deer that floated away like thistle-down. Miller thought at first that it was a land-slide; but he soon knew that it was Wahb that had rolled the boulder over merely for the sake of two or three ants beneath it. The wind had not betrayed him, eSmr>s ea ee eee ee ee Tee ee , apo xr ><> so on peering through the bush Miller saw the great Bear as he fed, favoring his left hind led and growling sullenly to himself at a fresh twinge of pain. Miller stea- died himself, and thought, ‘‘ Here goes a finisher or a dead miss.” He gave a sharp whistle, the Bear stopped every move, and, as he stood with ears acock, the man fired at his head. But at that moment the great shaddy head moved, only an infuri- ating scratch was given, the smoke betrayed the man’s place, and the Grizzly made savage, three-ledded haste to catch his foe. Miller dropped his gun and — swung lightly into a tree, the only large one near. Wahb raged in vain against the trunk. He tore off the bark with his teeth and claws; but Miller was safe beyond his reach. For fuliy four hours the Grizzly watched, then gave it up, and slowly went off into the bushes till lost to view. Miller watched him from the tree, and afterward waited nearly an hour to be sure that the Bear was gone. He then slipped to the ground, got his gun, and set out for camp. But Wahb was cunning; he had only seemed to go away, and then had sneaked back quietly to watch. As soon as the man was away from the tree, too far to return, Wahb dashed after him. In spite of his wounds the Bear could move the faster. Within a quarter of a mile—well, ehmx rg Wahb did just what the man had sworn to do to him. Leng afterward his friends found the gun and enough to tell the tale. The claim-shanty on the Me- teetsee fell to pieces. It never again was used, for no man cared to enter a country that had but few allurements to offset its evident curse of ill luck, and where sucha terrible Grizzly was always on the war-path. ~ 2 ? et, a 2 : ; aor ae Is ba = ad is ye dw ey Sk —F aera IV TRaQN HEN they found A Sie good gold on the INS 3 s Upper Meteetsee. Miners came in CS pairs and wandered through the peaks, rooting up the ground and spoiling the little streams—drizzly old men mostly, that had lived their lives in the mountain and were themselves slowly turning into Grizzly Bears; digging and grubbing everywhere, not for Sood, wholesome roots, but ed Mr rs JANA $p224 ‘FUL SIZE, THOUGH AW ““* AIN'T HE AN th La ehmmrg for that shiny yellow sand that they vould not eat; living the lives of Grizzlies, asking nothing but to be let alone to dig. They seemed to understand Grizzly Wahb. Thefirsttime they met, Wahb reared up on his hind legs, and the wicked green light- nings began to twinkle in his small eyes. The elder man said to his mate: ‘Let him alone, and he won't bother you.”’ “Ain'thean awful size, though ?” replied the other, nervously. Wahb was about to charge, but something held him back—asome- thing that had no reference to his senses, that was felt only when they were still; a something that / i | é in Bear and Man is wiser than his wisdom, and that points the way at every doubtful fork in the dim and winding trail. Of course Wahb did not under- stand what the men said, but he did feel tnat there was something different here. The smell of man and iron was there, but not of that maddening kind, and he missed the pungent odor that even yet brought back the dark days cf his cubhood. The men did not move,so Wahb rumbled a subterranean growl, dropped down on his four feet, and went on. Late the same year Wahd ran across the red-nosed Blackbear. How that Bear did keep on shrink- box >g ing! Wahbcould have hurled him across the Graybull with one tap now. But the Blackbear did not mean tolet himtry. He hustled his fat, podgy body up a tree at a rate that made him puff. Wahb reached up nine feet from the ground, and with one rake of his huge claws tore © a, off the bark clear to the shining x white wood and down nearly to 4% ts |e, the ground; and the Blackbear & Bin ey shivered and whimpered with ter- “Ye : 1 fr ror as the scraping of those awful Pe eee claws ran up the trunk and up his spine in a way that was horribly suggestive. What was it that the sight of that Blackbear stirred in Wahb? Was it memories of the Upper Piney, long forgotten; thoughts of a woodland rich in food? Wahbleft him trembling up there as high as he could get, and with- out any very clear purpose swung along the upper benches of the Meteetsee down to the Graybull, around the foot of the Rimrock Mountain; on, till hours later he found himself in the timber-tangle of the Lower Piney, and among the berries and ants of the old times. He had forgotten what a fine land the Piney was: plenty of food, no miners to spoil the streams, no hunters to keep an eye on, and no » mosquitos or flies, but plenty of | open, sunny glades and sheltering © woods, backed up by high, straight cliffs to turn the colder winds. ehmx>e There were, moreover, no resi- dent Grizzlies, no signs even of passing travelers, and the Black- bears that were in possession did not count. ~Wahb was well pleased. He rolled his vast bulk in an old Buf- falo-wallow, and rearing up against a tree where the Piney Cajon quits the Graybull Cafion, he left on it his mark fully eight feet from the ground. In the days that followed he wandered farther and farther up among the rugged spurs of the Shoshones, and took possession as he went. He found the sign- boards of several Blackbears, and if they were small dead trees he sent them crashing to earth with a drive of his giant paw. If they were green, he put his own mark over the other mark, and made it clearer by slashing the bark with the great pickaxes that grew on his toes. The Upper Piney had so long been a Blackbear range that the Squirrels had ceased storing their harvest in hollow trees, and were now using the spaces under flat rocks, where the Blackbears could not get at them; so Wahb found this a land of plenty: every fourth or fifth rock in the pine woods was the roof of a Squirrel or Chip- munk granary, and when he turned it over, if the little owner were there, Wahb did not scruple to | flatten him with his paw and de- vour him as an agreeable relish to his own provisions. shore sox rs And wherever Wahb went he put up his sign-board: Trespassers beware! It was written on the trees as high up as he could reach, and every one that came by understood that the scent of it and the hair in it were those of the great Grizzly Wahb. | If his Mother had lived to train him, Wahb would have known that a Sood range in spring may be a bad one in summer. Wahb found out by years of experience that a total change with the seasons is best. In the early spring the Cat- tle and Elk ranges, with their win- ter-killed carcasses, offer a boun- tiful feast. In early summer the best forage is on the warm hill- sides where the quamash and the Indian turnip grow. In late sum- mer the berry-bushes along the river-flat are laden with fruit, and in autumn the pine woods gave good chances to fatten for the win- ter. So he added to his range each year. He not only cleared out the Blackbears from the Piney and the Meteetsee, but he went over the Divide and killed that old fellow that had once chased him out of the Warhouse Valley. And, more than that, he held what he had won, for he broke up a camp of tenderfeet that were looking for a ranch location on the Middle Me- teetsee; he stampeded their horses, and made general smash of the camp. And so all the animals, in- Goze cluding man, came to know that the whole range from Frank’s Peak to the Shoshone spurs was the pro- per domain of a king well able to defend it, and the name of that king was Meteetsee Wabb. Any creature whose strength puts him beyond danger of open attack is apt to lose in cunning. Yet Wahb never forgot his early experience with the traps. He made it a rule never to go near that smell of man and iron, and that was the reason that he never again was caught. So he led his lonely life and slouched around on the mountains, throwing boulders about like peb- bles, and huge trunks like match- wood, as he sought for his daily food. And every beast of hill and plain soon came to know and fly in fear of Wahb, the one time hunted, persecuted Cub. And more than one Blackbear paid with his life for the ill-deed of that other, long ago. And many a cranky Bobcat flying before him took to a tree, and if that tree were dead and dry, Wahb heaved it down, and tree and Cat alike were dashed to bits. Even the proud-necked Stallion, leader of the mustang band, thought well for once to yield the road. The great, Srey Timberwolves, and the Mountain Lions too, left their new kill and sneaked in sullen fearaside when Wahb appeared. And if, as he hulked across the sage-covered river-flat sending the scared An- wi ; ey af, is é O7 ve i i OA OO le DEE DT Gs ti sla v6 sb salty Pe A bs iiviiban .TVUIMS SIH CGAHSVWS FHVM,, Santana ah pt igs tl ce th Mi Ae al a asada imo a Mana Wg Le u ae Epoxy telope skimming like birds before him, he was faced perchance, by some burly Range-bull, too young to be wise and too big to be afraid, Wahb smashed his skull with one blow of that giant paw, and served him as the Range-cow would have served himself long years ago. The All-mother never fails to offer to her own, twin cups, one gall, and one of balm. Little or much they may drink, but equally of each. The mountain that is easy to descend must soon be climbed again. The grinding hard- ship of Wahb’s early days, had built his mighty frame. All usual pleasures of a dgrizzly’s life had been denied him but power be- stowed in more than double share. So he lived on year after year, unsoftened by mate or compan- ion, sullen, fearing nothing, ready to fight, but asking only to be let alone—quite alone. He had but one keen pleasure in his sombre life —thelasting glory in his match- less strength—the small but never failing thrill of joy as the foe fell crushed and limp, or the riven boulders grit and heaved when he turned on them the measure of his wondrous force. V @VERYTHING has pyot a smell of its own oan for those that have 2 noses tosmell. Wahb~ ; had been learning smells all his life, and knew the meaning of most of those in the mountains. It was as though each and every thing had a voice of its own for him; and yet it was far better than a voice, for every one knows that a good nose is better than eyes and ears together. And each of these myriads of voices kept on crying, ‘Here and such am |.”’ The juniper-berries, the rose- hips, the strawberries, each had a soft, sweet little voice, calling, ‘‘Here we are— Berries, Berries.” The great pine woods had a loud, far-reaching voice, ‘“ Here are we, the Pine-trees,’’ but when he got right up to them Wahb could hear the low, sweet call of the pifion-nuts, ‘‘ Here are we, the Pinon-nuts.”’ And the quamash beds in May sang a perfect chorus when the wind was right: ‘‘Quamash beds, Quamash beds.” And when he got among them he made out each single voice. Each root had its own little piece to say to his nose: “Here am I,a big Quamash, rich and ripe,” or a tiny, sharp voice, ‘Here am I, a good-for-nothing, stringy little root.” And the broad, rich russulas in the sutumn called aloud, “I ama fat, wholesome Mushroom,”’ and the deadly amanita cried, ‘I am an Amanita. Let me alone, or you'll be a sick Bear.’’ And the fairy harebell of the cafion-banks sang a sorg too, as fine as its thread- like stem, and as soft as its daint blue; but the warden of the smells had iearned to report it not, for this, and a million other such, were a Ni; Ay of nc interest to Wahb. a —/ So every living thing that moved, es Xi ce Se is y i) S 3 n\ 1 MH aL ( q as apox>rs and every flower that grew, and every rock and stone and shape on earth told out its tale and sang its little story to his nose. Day or night, fog or bright, that great, moist nose told him most of the things he needed to know, or passed unnoticed those of no con- cern, and he depended on it more and more. If his eyes and ears to- gether reported so and so, he would not even then believe it until his nose said, ‘‘ Yes; that is right.” But this is something that man cannot understand, for he has sold the birthright of his nose for the privilege of living in towns. While hundreds of smells were 4» _, agreeable to Wahb, thousands by fine were indifferent to ae a good geo yes yer Ss x >< many were unpleasant, and some actually put him in a rage. He had often noticed that if a west wind were blowing when he was at the head of the Piney Canon there was an odd, new scent. Some days he did not mind it, and some days it disgusted him; but he never followed it up. On other days a north wind from the high Divide brought a most awful smell, something unlike any other, a smell that he wanted only to get away from. WAHB was getting well past. his youth now, and he began to have pains in the hind leg that had been wounded so often. After a cold night or a long time of wet weather he could scarcely use that leg, and one day, while thus crippled, the west wind came down the canon with an odd message to his nose. Wahb could not clearly read the message, but it seemed to say, ‘Come,’ and something within him said, ‘Go.’ The smell of food will draw ahungry creature and disgust a gorged one. We do not know why, and all that any one can learn is that the desire springs from a need of the body. So Wahb felt drawn by what had long disgusted him, and heslouched up the moun- tain path, grumbling to himself and slapping savagely back at branches that chanced to switch his face. The odd odor grew very strong; it led him where he had never been wv wx >s > 110 before—up a bank of whitish sand to a bench of the same color, where there was unhealthy-looking water running down, and a kind of fog coming out ofahole. Wahbthrew up his nose suspiciously—such a peculiar smell! He climbed the bench. A snake wriggled across the sand in front. Wahb crushed it with a blow that made the near trees shiver and sent a balanced boulder toppling down, and he growled a growl that rumbled up the valley like distant thunder. Then he came to the foggy hole. It was full of water that moved gently and steamed. Wahb put in his foot, and found it was quite warm and that it felt pleasantly on his skin. He put in both feet, and little by little went in farther, caus- ing the pool to overflow on all sides, till he was lying at full length in the warm, almost hot, sulphur- spring, and sweltering in the green- ish water, while the wind drifted the steam about overhead. There are plenty of these sul- phur-springs in the Rockies, but this chanced to be the only one on Wahb’s range. He lay in it for over an hour; then, feeling that he had had enough, he heaved his huge bulk up on the bank, and realized that he was feeling re- markably well and supple. The stiffness of his hind leg was gone. He shook the water from his shaggy coat. A broad ledge in full bo xr>t sun-heat invited him to stretch himself out and dry. But first he reared against the nearest tree and left a mark that none could mis- take. True, there were plenty of signs of other animals using the { sulphur-bath for their ills; but I what of it? Thenceforth that tree && = bore this inscription, in a language of mud, hair, and smell, that every \y mountain creature could read: ri : DI My bath. Keep away! = / i (Signed) WAHB. \ ’ As Wahb lay on his belly till his J! \, back was dry, then turned on his : broad back and squirmed about in | a ponderous way till the broiling ls sun had wholly dried him. He ° s o 2s 5 7S ay h Aas realized that he was really feeling very well now. He did not say to himself, ‘1 am troubled with that unpleasant disease called rheuma- tism, and sulphur-bath treatment is the thing to cure it.’’ But what he did know was, ‘‘I have dreadful pains; | feel better when | am in this stinking pool.” So thenceforth he came back whenever the pains began again, and each time he was cured. ny s\\ ‘5 yy) WOGR NSN ag a SE SS -a\\ \ bOI >< > -_ ar an WI>d Wir sf ) : ( y Sy) iy) ‘ se 4 Z LY ee (\ > IL ENS ? I ‘| as fall: = Lt \@ SF e~N ‘AAALY BO 0? Part III THE WANING ‘ A : i a as ORS SSP \ 3 iE 1G) vy Wee EARS went by. WEE Wahb grew no big- ger,—there was no need for that,—but he got whiter, cross- «| ..¥%y er,and more dangerous. He really ‘ hadanenormousrange now. Each | ¥ 4 spring, after the winter storms \G « had removed his notice-boards, he} went around and renewed them. ‘% It was natural to do so, for, first of Bal all, the scarcity of food compelled mh him to travel all over the range. ‘i AN IZ “Siey = : a LO a. az eo - we =a J es a= eat rd ey ba Be ~ - ° ai > be Ro r>s “4 There were lots of clay wallows at that season, and the itching of his skin, as the winter coat began to shed, made the dressing of cool, wet clay very pleasant, and the exquisite pain of a good scratch- ing was one of the finest pleasures he knew. So, whatever his motive, the result was the same: the signs were renewed each spring. At length the Palette Ranch out- fit appeared on the Lower Piney, and the men got acquainted with the ‘ugly old fellow.’ The Cow- punchers, when they saw him, de- cided they ‘had n’t lost any Bears and they had better keep out of his way and lethim mind his business.’ They did not often see him, al- though his tracks and sign-boards were everywhere. But the owner of this outfit, a born hunter, took a keen interestin Wahb. Helearned something of the old Bear’s his- tory from Colonel Pickett, and found out for himself more than the colonel ever knew. He learned that Wahb ranged as far south as the Upper Wiggins Fork and north to the Stinking Water, and from the Meteetsee to the Shoshones. He found that Wahb knew more about Bear-traps than most trap- pers do; that he either passed them by or tore open the other end of the bait-pen and dragged out the bait without going near the trap, and by accident or design Wahb some- times sprang the trap with one of the logsthatformed the pen. This ranch-owner found also that Wahb disappeared from his range each year during the heat of the summer, as completely as he did each win- ter during his sleep. Shox>s I! ANY years ago a wise government set aside the head wa- ters of the Yellow- <—* stone to be a sanc- tuary of wild life forever. In the limits of this great Wonderland the ideal of the Royal Singer was to be realized, and none were to harm or make afraid. No violence was to be offered to any bird or beast, no ax was to be carried into its primi- tive forests, and the streams were to flow on forever unpolluted by mill or mine. All things were to bear witness that such as this was the West before the white man came. The wild animals quickly found out all this. They soon learned the boundaries of this unfenced Park, and, as every one knows, they show a different nature within its sacred limits. They no longer shun the face of man, they neither fear nor attack him, and they are even more tolerant of one another in this land of refuge. Peace and plenty are the sum of earthly good; so, finding them here, the wild creatures crowd into the Park from the surround- a ing country in numbers not else- Zs ) ~( Ca = ‘ where to be seen. i? a ba NS we — BOG! The Bears are especially nu- merous about the Fountain Ho- tel. In the woods, a quarter of a mile away, is a smooth open place where the steward of the hotel has all the broken and waste food put out daily for the Bears, and the man whose work it is has become the Steward of the Bears’ Banquet. Each day it is spread, and each year there are more Bears to par- take of it. It is a common thing now to see a dozen Bears feast- ing there at one time. They are of all kinds— Black, Brown, Cin- namon, Grizzly, Silvertip, Roach- backs, big and small, families and rangers, from all parts of the vast surrounding country. All seem to realize that in the Park no vio- lence is allowed, and the most fe- rocious of them have here put on a new behavior. Although scores of Bears roam aboutthis choice re- sort,and sometimes quarrel among themselves, not one of them has ever yet harmed a man. Year after year they have come and gone. The passing travellers see them. The men of the hotel know many of them well. They know that they show up each sum- mer during the short season when the hotel is in use, and that they disappear again, no man knowin whence they come or whither they O. One day the owner of the Palette Ranch came through the Park. During his stay at the Fountain Hotel, he went to the Bear ban- (Shoxr>t , Spoxurt N f may i eI quet-hall at a meal-tide. There were several Blackbears feasting, but they made way for a huge Silvertip Grizzly that came about sundown. ‘““'T’hat,’’ said the man who was acting as guide, “‘is the biggest Grizzly in the Park; but he is a peaceable sort, or Lud knows what 'd happen.” ‘That!’ said the ranchman, in astonishment, as the Grizzly came hulking nearer, and loomed up like a load of hay among the piney pillars of the Banquet Hall.‘ That! If that is not Meteetsee Wahb, I never saw a Bear in my life! Why, that is the worst Grizzly that ever rolled a log in the Big Horn Basin.” “Tt ain't possible,’ said the other, ‘‘for he 's here every sum- mer, July and August, an’ I reckon a he don’t live so far away.”’ “Well, that settles it,’ said the ranchman; “July and August is just the time we miss him on the range; and you can see for yourself that he is a little lame behind and has lost a claw of bis left front foot. Now I know where he puts in his summers; but I did not sup- pose that the old reprobate would know enough to behave himself away from home.”’ The big Grizzly became very well known during the successive hotel seasons. Once only did he really behave ill, and that was the : @. first season he appeared, before ¥ “S 2 a he fully knew the ways of the Park. He wandered over to the hotel, one day, and in at the front door. In the hall he reared up his eight feet of stature as the guests fled in terror; then he wentinto the clerk’s office. The man said: ‘ All right; if you need this office more than I do, you can have it,” and leaping over the counter, locked himself in the telegraph-office, to wire the superintendent of the Park: “Old Grizzly in the office now, seems to want to run hotel; may we shoot ?”’ The reply came: ‘‘ No shooting allowed in Park; use the hose.” Which they did, and, wholly taken by surprise, the Bear leaped over the counter too, and ambled out the back way, with a heavy thud- thudding of his feet, and a rattling of his claws on the floor. He passed through the kitchen as he went, and, picking up a quarter of beef, took it along. This was the only time he was known to do ill, though on one oc- casion he was led into a breach of the peace by another Bear. This was a large she-Blackbear and a noted mischief-maker. She had a wretched, sickly cub that she was very proud of —so proud that she went out of her way to seek trouble on his behalf. And he, like all spoiled children, was the cause of much bad feeling. She was so big and fierce that she wox> could bully all the other Black- bears, but when she tried to drive off old Wahb she received a pat from his paw that sent her tumbling like a football. He followed her up, and would have killed her, for she had broken the peace of the Park, but she escaped by climbing a tree, from the top of which her miserable little cub was apprehen- sively squealing at the pitch of his voice. So the affair was ended; in future the Blackbear kept out of Wahb’s way, and he won the repu- tation of being a peaceable, well- behaved Bear. Most persons be- lieved that he came from some remote mountains where were neither guns nor traps to make him sullen and revengeful. x VERY one _ knows that a Bitter-root Grizzly is a bad » Bear. The ‘Bitter ““ root Range is ime roughest part of the mountains. The ground iS everywhere cut up with deep ravines and overgrown with dense and tangled under- brush. It is an impossible country for horses, and difficult for Sunners, and there is any amount of good Bear-pasture. So there are plenty of Bears and plenty of trappers. The Roachbacks, as the Bitter- root Grizzlies are called, are a cunning and desperate race. An old Roachback knows more about traps than half a dozen ordinary trappers; he knows more about plants and roots than a whole col- lese of botanists. He can tell toa certainty just when and where to find each kind of grub and worm, and he knows by a whiff whether the hunter on his trail a mile away is working with guns, poison, dogs, traps, or all of them together. And he has one general rule, which is an endless puzzle to the hunter: ‘Whatever you decide to do, do it quickly and follow it right up.’ So TA, when a trapper and a Roachback meet, the Bear at once makes up his mind to run away as hard as he can, or to rush at the man and fight to a finish. The Grizzlies of the Bad Lands did not do this: they used to stand on their dignity and growl like a thunder-storm, and so gave the hunters a chance to play their deadly lightning; and lightning is worse thanthunder any day. Men can get used to growls that rumble along the ground and up one’s leds to the little house where one’s courage lives; but Bears cannot get used to 45-90 soft-nosed bul- lets, and that is why the Grizzlies of the Bad Lands were all killed off. WxI>e So the hunters have learned that they never know what a Roachback will do; but they do know that he is going to be quick about it. Altogether these Bitter-root Grizzlies have solved very well the problem of life, in spite of white men, and are therefore in- creasing in their own wild moun- tains. Of course a range will hold only so many Bears, and the increase is crowded out; so that when that slim young Bald-faced Roachback found he could not hold the range he wanted, he went out perforce to seek his fortune in the world. He was not a big Bear, or he would not have been crowded out; but he had been trained in a good school, so that he was cunning enough to get on very well else- where. How he wandered down to the Salmon River Mountains and did not like them; how he traveled till he got among the barb- wire fences of the Snake Plains and of course could not stay there; how a mere chance turned him from going eastward to the Park, where he might have rested; how he made for the Snake River Mountains andfound more hunters than berries; how he crossed into the Tetons and looked down with disgust on the teeming man colony of jackson’s Hole, does not belong to this historyof Wahb. But when Baidy Roachback crossed the Gros Bsox>e Ventre Range and over the Wind River Divide to the head of the Graybull, he does come into the story, just as he did into the coun- try and the life of the Meteetsee Grizzly. The Roachback had not found a man-sign since he left Jackson's Hole, and here he was in a land of plenty of food. He feasted on all the delicacies of the season, and enjoyed the easy, brushless coun- try till he came on one of Wahb’s sign-posts. “Trespassers beware!”’ it said — in the plainest manner. The Roachback reared up against it. ‘Thunder! whata Bear!"’ The nose-mark was a head and neck above Baldy’s hidhestreach. Now, a simple Bear would have gone quietly away after this discovery; but Baldy felt that the mountains owed him a living, and here was a good one if he could keep out of the way of the big fellow. He nosed about the place, kept a sharp lookout for the present owner, and went on feeding wherever he ran across a good thing. A step or two from this ominous tree was anold pine stump. Inthe Bitter-roots there are often mice- nests under such stumps, and Baldy jerked it over tosee. There was nothing. The stump rolled over against the sidn-post. Baldy had not yet made up his mind about it; but a new notion came into his cunning brain. He turned shou>s : coe Sa a ye “HE DELIBERATELY STOOD UP ON THE PINE ROOT.” his head on this side, then on that. He looked at the stump, then at the sign, with his little pig-like eyes. Then he deliberately stood up on the pine root, with his back to the tree, and put his mark away up, a head at least above that of Wahb. He rubbed his back long and hard, and he sought some mud to smear his head and shoul- ders, then came back and made the mark so big, so strong, and so high, and emphasized it with such claw-Sashes in the bark, that it could be read only in one way— a challenge to the present claimani from some monstrous invader, who was ready, nay anxious, to fight to a finish for this Me icable range. Maybe it was accident and may- be design, but when the Roach- back jumped from the root it rolled to one side. Baldy went on down the canon, keeping the keenest lookout for his enemy. It was not long before Wahb found the trail of the interloper, and all the ferocity of his outside- the-Park nature was aroused. He followed the trail for miles on more than one occasion. But the small Bear was quick-footed as well as quick-witted, and never showed himself. He made a point, however, of calling at each sign- post, and if there was any means of cheating, so that his mark might be put higher, he did it with a vim, and left a big, showy record. But if there was no chance for any but a fair register, he would not go near the tree, but looked for a fresh tree near by with some lod or side- ledge to reach from. Thus Wahb soon found the in- terloper’s marks towering far above his own—a monstrous Bear evi- dently, that even he could not be sure of mastering. But Wahb was no coward. He was ready to fight to a finish any one that might come; and he hunted the range for that invader. Day after day Wahb sought for him and held himself ready to fight. He found his trail daily, and more and more often he found that towering record far above his own. He often smelled him on the wind; but he never saw him, for the old Grizzly’s eyes had oh i =. dente VEN e ty we ee re Naar ye grown very dim of late years; things but a little way off were mere blurs to him. The continual menace could not but fill Wahb with uneasiness, for he was not young now, and his teeth and claws were worn and blunted. He was more than ever troubled with pains in his old wounds, and though he could have risen on the spur of the moment to fight any number of Grizzlies of any size, still the con- tinual apprehension, the knowledge that he must hold himself ready at any moment to fight this young monster, weighed on his spirits and began to tell on his general health. shoud Sdoure IV Pex = mM HE Roachback’s life Set SY was one of contin- LGN an ual vigilance, always > ready to run, doub- ling and shifting to avoid the encounter that must mean instant death tohim. Many atime from some hiding-place he watched the great Bear, and trembled lest the wind should betray him. Sev- eral times his very impudence saved him, and more than once he was nearly cornered in a box- cafion. Once he escaped only by climbing up a long crack in a cliff, which Wahb’s huge frame could not have entered. But still, in a mad persistence, he kept on mark- ing the trees farther into the range. At last he scented and followed up the sulphur-bath. He did not understand it at all. It had no ap- peal to him, but hereabouts were the tracks “of the’ owner. Inve spirit of mischief the Roachback scratched dirt into the spring, and then seeing the rubbing-tree, he stood sidewise on the rocky ledge, and was thus able to put his mark fully five feet above that of Wahb. Then he nervously jumped down, and was running about, defiling the bath and keeping a sharp lookout, Wd 37 EK WOODS THE ROACHBACK FLED INTO TH when he heard a noise in the woods below. Instantly he was all alert. The sound drew near, then the wind brought the sure proof, and the Roachback, in terror, turned and fled into the woods. It was Wahb. He had been failing in health of late; his old ains were on him again, and, as well as his hind leg, had seized his right shoulder, where were still lodged two rifle-balls. He was feeling very ill, and crippled with pain. He came up the familiar bank at a jerky limp, and there caught the odor of the foe; then he saw the track in the mud—his eyes said the track of a small Bear, but his eyes were dim now, and his nose, his unerring nose, said, nes aN r chy “This is the track of the huge in- vader.’’ Then he noticed the tree with his sign on it, and there be- yond doubt was the stranger’s mark far above his own. His eyes and “nose were agreed on this; and more, they told him that the foe was close at hand, might at any moment come. Wahb was feeling ill and weak with pain. He was in no mood for a desperate fight. A battle against such odds would be madness now. So, without taking the treatment, he turned and swung along the bench away from the direction taken by the stranger—the first time since his cubhood that he had declined to fight. That was a turning-point in Wahb’s life. If he had followed up the stranger he would have found the miserable little craven trembling, cowering, in an agony of terror, behind a log in a natural trap, a walled-in glade only fifty yards away, and would surely have crushed him. Had he even taken the bath, his strength and courage would have been renewed, and if not, then at least in time he would have met his foe, and his after life would have been different. But he had turned. This was the fork in the trail, but he had no means of knowing it. He limped along, skirting the lower spurs of the Shoshones, and soon came on that horrid smell that he had known for years, but Dawe. } 4 - . Geese A Hr — ne 2 ‘\ - a \: - —- never followed up or understood. It was right in his road, and he traced it to a small, barren ravine that was strewn over with skele- tons and dark objects, and Wahb, as he passed, smelled a smell of many different animals, and knew by its quality that they were lying dead in this treeless, grassless hol- low. For there was a cleft in the rocks at the upper end, whence poured a deadly gas; invisible but heavy, it filled the little gulch like a brimming poison bowl, and at the lower end there was a steady over- flow. But Wahb knew only that the air that poured from it as he passed made him dizzy and sleepy, and repelled him, so that he got quickly away from it and was glad once more to breathe the piny wind. W A H B $0 155 Once Wahb decided to retreat, it was all too easy to do so next time; and the result worked double disaster. For, since the big stranger was allowed possession of the sul- phur-spring, Wahb felt that he would rather not go there. Some- times when he came across the traces of his foe, a spurt of his old courage would come back. He would rumble that thunder-growl as of old, and go painfully lumber- ing along the trail to settle the thing right then and there. But he never overtook the mysterious giant, and his rheumatism, growing worse now that he was barred from the cure, soon made him daily less capable of either running or fight- ing. | Sometimes Wahb would sense his foe’s approach when he was in a bad place for fighting, and, without really running, he would yield to a wish to be on a better footing, where he would have a fair chance. This better footing never led him nearer the enemy, for it is well known that the one awaiting has the advantage. Some days Wahb felt so ill that it would have been madness to have staked everything on a fight, and when he felt well or a little better, the stranger seemed to keep away. Wahb soon found that the stran- ger’s track was most often on the Warhouse and the west slope of the Piney, the very best feeding- grounds. To avoid these when he did not feel equal to fighting was wWx>rs = wi roe’ only natural, and as he was always in more or less pain now, it amount- ed to abandoning to the stranger the best part of the range. Weeks went by. Wahb had meant to go back to his bath, but he never did. His pains grew worse; he was now crippled in his right shoulder as well as in his hind leg. The long strain of waiting for the fight bedgot. anxiety, that drew to be apprehension, which, with the sapping of his strength, was breaking down his courage, as it always must when courage is founded on muscular force. His daily care now was not to meet and fight the invader, but to avoid him till he felt better. Thus that first little retreat drew into one long retreat. Wahb had to go farther and farther down the Piney to avoid an encounter. He was daily worse fed, and as the weeks went by was daily less able to crush a foe. He was living and hiding at last on the Lower Piney—the very place where once his Mother had brought him with his little brothers. The life he led now was much like the one he had led after that dark day. Perhaps for the same reason. If he had had a family of his own all might have been different. As he limped along one morning, seek- ing among the barren aspen groves for a few roots, or the wormy partridge-berries that were too poor sbom>g> to interest the Squirrel and the Grouse, he heard a stone rattle down the western slope into the woods, and, a little later, on the wind was borne the dreaded taint. He waded through the ice-cold Piney,—oncehe would haveleaped it,—andthe chill watersent through and up each great hairy limb keen pains that seemed to reach his very life. He was retreating again— which way? There seemed but one way now—toward the new ranch-house. But there were signs of stir about it long before he was near enough to be seen. His nose, his trustiest friend, said, ‘‘ Turn, turn and seek the hills,”’ and turn he did even at the risk of meeting there the dreadful foe. He limped pain- fully along the north bank of the Piney, keeping in the hollows and among the trees. He tried toclimb a cliff that of old he had often bounded up at full speed. When half-way up his footing gave way, and down he rolled to the bottom. A long way round was now the only road, for onward he must go—on —on. Butwhere? Thereseemed no choice now but to abandon the wholerangeto theterrible stranger. And feeling, as far as a Bear can feel, that he is failen, defeated, de- throned at last, that he is driven from his ancient range by a Bear too strong for himto face, he turned up the west fork, and the lot was drawn. The strength and speed ssmm> ; teukes ’ ’ NK 5 Jf ie / / 1 ; i A -_— ¥ — “ o> ea - ‘ = : I . ‘, b regen ii