“The noise made by them in running through the brush stirred up another squad, and when the shooting began down below five bears came tearing out on our side to get out of the way.  Willis raised his rifle and pulled the trigger, but luckily the cap failed to explode.  The five turned as soon as they saw us and ran in another direction.  I was going to shoot one in the rump, but Willis stopped me, saying that we had our hands full without inviting any more bears to join the scrimmage.  Before those five bears, got out of sight three more broke cover and joined them, and for a moment there were eleven Grizzly bears, young and old, in sight from where I stood.  Eight of them ran away and the original three kept us all busy for the best part of the afternoon.

“For some time the other three men had all the fun, while Willis and I stood guard on our side of the thicket and watched the performance.  The old bear would stand up and look over a patch of brush to locate her enemy, and somebody would give her a shot.  She would drop to all fours and gallop around to where she saw the man last, and he would run around the other side and reload.  The cubs were half grown—­big enough to be dangerous—­and the boys had to watch for them while dodging about.

“I got even on Green that afternoon.  He had forgotten to bring any caps, and after his first shot he could do nothing but dodge around the brush and keep out of the way.  One of the bears was after him, and he had to step lively.  While he was waiting to see which way the bear was coming next, he made motions with his hand, pointing to the nipple of his rifle, to indicate that he wanted caps.  I saw what he meant, but instead of going to him to supply him with caps I stood still and laughed at him and applauded his running when the bear chased him.  That made him furious and he yelled that if he had a cap he’d take a shot at me.

“After two or three hours of dodging about, every man taking a shot whenever he got a chance, one of the cubs keeled over and the dam and the other cub retreated into the thickest part of the brush patch.

“We consulted and decided that if we killed the other cub next the dam might quit and get away, whereas if we killed the dam the cub probably wouldn’t leave her and we’d bag the whole outfit.  One of the party crawled cautiously into the thicket and presently he fired.  Then he called to me to come in, and when I crawled up to him he said:  ’I’ve killed the cub by mistake, but the old one is lying badly wounded on the other side of a little open spot, and you can get a splendid shot at the butt of her ear while I back out and reload.”