, 1905-11-16

luS IL. Nhcu We ILL avn WIG hSHs
morning we found the elk, but minus
the headquarters. Bear whispered
L%ivermore. 1 nodded my head, pump
ed a shell into my gun chamber and
tip-toed away to examine the tracks.
The snow was dry, didn't pack enough
to leave a good print, but l finally
found what 1 was looking for, and came
back.
81 sized Livermore up, then said:
L~ivermore, you're standing right on
the spot where old -Four Toes, one of
the biggist grizzlies hat ever ranged
the Rockies, laid when he ate his sup
per, last night. A grizzlie don't raw
ell far after a meal like that before he
stretches out to sleep it off. You came
out here to hunt elk. Pm going at or
that zeal today, if 1 come back-Then
Livermore cracked a shell into his
chamber aud said, softly, Lead OF,
MacDuff,' just like he'd forgotten my
name.
81 gave Livermore his instructions,
he was to step just when | stepped, and
always to keep twenty-feet to my right.
L could, by spreading my feet wide
apart enough step in the bears
track and avoid crunching the snow.
Two hundred yards from the carcass of
the elk we came to a place where the
bear had twisted a five-inch tree out Of
the ground by the roots, and had made
a bed in the hole. A hundred feet
further on The tracks ended abruptly
and angled back in a sharp V to the
left. | stopped dead still, then circled
back to the right. L looked at Liver
more then nodded toward the thick
clump of underbrush at my left. Liv-
ermore looked at the biggest tree any
where near us-a sapling about six
inches throueh-and whispered, dam
ned poor climbing.
Just then: it happened, the old fell
low had done just what I thought he
had: he had angled back from his track
and had laid down in the underbrush
to watch his back track. AS soon as l
saw his furry bulk raise out of the
bushes, | started to empty my 1910 into
him. He was coming after me just as
hard and fast as he could, at the rate
OF about n jump to the second, and
about ten feet every jump. l wanted
to get a shot at his back or his liver,
but he kept showing nothing but his
breast and head.
"Ltvermore missed his first shot.
While i was shooting l called to him
not to miss again. His second shot
took old :'Four Toes in the flank and
he grabbed his wounded side like a
small boy stung by a humble bee. Two
of my shots had lodged in his open
mouths and his swapping jaws were
dripping bloody foam as he came ut US.
He was less than twenty feet from our
gun muzzles when he went down il a
heap. We had fired twelve shots at
him, and we found eleven bullet holes
in his carcass"
The estimated weight of this great
grizzly was between 1900 and 100
pounds. The skin measures over
twelve feet from tip to tip, and nine
feet and six inches across from foot TO
foot. The bicep On the fore leg was
about the girth of an ordinary mans
body. The breast from the outside of
fore legs measured just three feet
across.
Mr.. Chase viewed the expanse of
fu%ll-coated fur, covering the wall and
remarked, 81 guess some nabob back
east III buy old -Four Toes and spread
him out in some grand room before a
great fireplace for a lot of dudes and
dudines to put their feet into, and |
re exon that's about as fit an ending as
any Don't you?"-