Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-02

June coat shone a golden brown in the sun.
His forearms were almost as large as a
mans body; the three largest of his five
k"ifelike claws were five and a half inches
long.
In the mud his feet had left tracks that
were fifteen inches from tip to tip. He was
fat and sleek and powerful. His eyes no
larger than hickory nuts, were eight inches
apart His two upper fangs, sharp as still
etto points were as long as mans thumb,
and between his great jaws he could crush
the neck of a caribou.
Thor's life had been free of the presence
Of man, and he was not ug " Like most
grizzlies, he did not kill for the pleasure
Of killing. out Of a herd he would take one
caribou. and he would eat that caribou to
the marrow in the last bone. lie was
peaceful king. lie had one law Let me
alone !" he said, and the voice Of Hlat law
was in his attitude as nc sat on his
Launches shifting the strange smell,
In his massive strength, in his aloneness
and his supremacy the great bear was like
the mountains, unriva ed in the valleys as
they were in the skies. With the mountains,
he had come down out of the ages He was
part of them. The history of his race had
begun and was dying among them, and they
We're alike in many ways. Until this day
he could not remember when anything had
come to question his might and his right
except those OF his own kind. With such
rivals he had fought fairly and more than
once to the death He was ready to hght
again, If it came to a question OF soVer-
eighty over the ranges which he claimed as
his own. Until he was beaten he was dom
inator, arbiter and despot If he chose to be.
lie was dynast Of the rich valleys and the
green slopes, and lege lord of all living
things about him. lie had won and kept
these things openly, without strategy or
treachery. He was hated and he was
feared but he was without hatred or fear
H.. hon
he waited openly for the strange thing
that was coming to him from down the
valley.
As he sat on his launches, questioning
the air with his keen brown nose, something
within him was reaching back into aim ana
bygone generations. Never before had ne
caught the taint that was In his nostrls,
vet now that It came to him 1t did not seem
altogether new He could not place IL. lie
could not picture It, Yet he knew that II
was menace and threat
For ten minutes he sat like a carven
thing on his launches, Then the wlnd
shifted, and the scent grew less ana less
until il was gone altogether
Thor's fat ears lifted little. He turned
his huge head slowly so that his eyes took
In the green slope and the tiny plain lie
easily forgot the smell now that the an
was clear and sweet again. lie uroppeu
on his four feet and resumed his gopher
hunting.
There was something of humor In his
hunt. Thor weighed thousand pounds
mountain gopher is six inches long and
weighs six ounces Yet Thor would dig
energetically for an hour, and rejoice at the
end by swallowing the fat little gopher IKE
a nil II was his bonne bouche, the luscious
tidbit in the quest Of which he spent
third of his spring and summer digging
He found a hole located 10 his satistac-
tion and began throwing out the earth like
huge dog after rat lie was on the
the next half hour he lifted his head, but
he was no longer disturbed by the strange
smell that had come TO him with the wind.