discovered him he was balancing himself upon the broken shaft
and reaching out over his head into space for more limbs."

CHAPTER X.

YOSEMITE.

"Yosemite" is an Indian word, signifying "place of the Grizzly bear,"
and appropriately the Yosemite National Park is made a sanctuary for
the California Grizzly by the regulations forbidding hunting or the
carrying of firearms within its borders. Danger of extinction of the
species, which was an imminent menace when the park was established,
was averted by that act, and doubtless the bears have increased in
numbers under protection of the United States. They were quite
plentiful in that part of the Sierra Nevada in the early 90's, when, as
State Forester, I co-operated with the first superintendent of the
National Park, Capt. Wood, Fourth U. S. Cavalry, in driving out the
sheep-men with their devastating flocks of "hoofed locusts," and
protecting the Sierra forests from fire.

During the first two or three years of the Park's legal existence the
hunting of deer was prohibited, but bear-hunting was permitted, and
Captain Wood, Lieut. Davis and I devoted considerable time to the sport
in the autumn of 1891. The Captain and I learned to appreciate the
distinction between bear-hunting and bear-killing very keenly during
that season. For example, I cut the trails of no less than thirteen
bears in two days in the mountains north of Yosemite Valley and
followed some of them, but although I succeeded in getting close enough
to hustle two of the wanderers out of a leisurely walk into a lope, I
never saw hair through my rifle sight. Having no dogs, of course, it
was all still-hunting and trailing, with the long-odds chance of
jumping a bear in the brush by sheer accident.

Late in the tourist season, bears came down out of the high mountains
into the Yosemite Valley and made tracks in the Bridal Veil Meadows and
along the stage roads, which were pointed out to visitors for their
entertainment. The valley butcher reported bear sign at the place
where he slaughtered beef for the hotel, and I tried roosting for bear
in hope that it might prove better than still-hunting. There was a
platform in a tree at the slaughtering place and I sat there through
one chilly night without hearing or seeing any bear sign. The next
night an eager tourist persuaded me to give him a share of the perch,
and we roosted silently and patiently until after midnight. Hearing a
bear coming thr