ed myself with less exciting
sport in one of the eastern states. As things turned out, it would have
been better for all of us had we done so.

We made a good show as we rode over the prairie, with our baggage mules,
our led horses, mounted Indians, our Canadian guide and our four selves;
so that no ordinary band of Redskins was likely to attack our party,
unless they could take us by surprise, and against that it was our
constant care effectually to guard by keeping a bright look-out during
the day, and a careful watch over the camp at night. Our Indians knew
very well that they would be the first victims should we be attacked.

We were sure, in the neighbourhood of the Rocky Mountains which we had
now reached, to fall in with big-horns, elks and antelopes, as well as
buffalo in the lower ground. We accordingly encamped in a beautiful
spot with the lofty mountains rising above us, while below extended the
prairie far away to the horizon. I must not stop to describe our
various adventures. Dick continued indifferent to sport, but
occasionally went out with me; while Armitage and Story shot together,
and never returned without a big-horn or two, or an elk. One day they
appeared leading or rather dragging along what looked like a mass of
shaggy fur of a tawny colour. As they approached, I saw that their
captive was a young bear, with its head thoroughly covered up with the
skin of another animal of the same description. They were laughing
heartily, and every now and then springing forward to avoid the rushes
made at them by the little creature. On finding all its efforts vain,
it at length stopped, and refused to move. They told me that they had
shot the mother and then one of her cubs; that the other refusing to
leave the body of its parent, they had time to take off the skin from
the cub they had killed and had adroitly thrown it over the head of its
brother, and that having a coil of rope they had managed to secure it.
We hoped to tame our captive, but the moment the skin was taken off its
head, darting at Jack, it gave him a severe bite in the leg, and nearly
treated Armitage in the same manner, but fortunately he had a thick
stick with which he gave the little brute so severe a blow on the nose,
that it lay down, as we thought, in the sulks. We managed to tether it
in a way effectually to prevent its escape, but the next morning we
found, to our disappointment, that it was dead. The skins of the two
anim