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."

"He backed out, and I crawled up and took his place. There was the old
bear about ten yards away, lying down and bleeding from a great many
wounds. She seemed to be nearly exhausted and out of breath. I was in
the act of raising my rifle to take aim at her head, when she caught
sight of me and suddenly sprang up and rushed at me. She was almost
upon me in two jumps, and I thought I was in for a bad time of it. I
had no time to aim, but pushed out my rifle instinctively and fired in
her face. The bullet struck her in the mouth, and the pain caused her
to stop, wheel around and make a rush through the chaparral in the
opposite direction. Such a shot as that from a Winchester express
would have blown off the whole roof of her head, but my bullet, as I
found later, tore through her tongue, splitting the root, and stopped
when it struck bone.

"When she broke out of the brush on the other side three of the boys
fired into her and she fell dead. We looked her over and found more
than thirty bullets in her. We had been shooting at her and dodging
her in the brush from 11 o'clock in the forenoon; until after 3
o'clock, and she had caved in from sheer exhaustion and loss of blood,
not from the effects of any single bullet.

"We packed the three carcases into Sonora that night and a butcher
named Dodge offered to cut them up and sell the meat without charge to
us if we would let him have the bears at his shop. That was the first
bear meat ever taken into Sonora, and everybody in the camp wanted a
piece. In the morning there was a line of men at Dodge