depended upon. About half a mile east of the corral we overtook twenty
or thirty of the flock and succeeded in driving them back; then turning
to the westward, we traced another band of fugitives and got them back
to the flock. After daybreak I discovered the remains of a sheep
carcass, still warm, showing that Bruin must have been enjoying his
early mutton breakfast while I was seeking the runaways. He had eaten
about half of it. Six dead sheep lay in the corral, evidently smothered
by the crowding and piling up of the flock against the side of the
corral wall when the bear entered. Making a wide circuit of the camp,
Carlo and I discovered a third band of fugitives and drove them back to
camp. We also discovered another dead sheep half eaten, showing there
had been two of the shaggy freebooters at this early breakfast. They
were easily traced. They had each caught a sheep, jumped over the corral
fence with them, carrying them as a cat carries a mouse, laid them at
the foot of fir trees a hundred yards or so back from the corral, and
eaten their fill. After breakfast I set out to seek more of the lost,
and found seventy-five at a considerable distance from camp. In the
afternoon I succeeded, with Carlo's help, in getting them back to the
flock. I don't know whether all are together again or not. I shall make
a big fire this evening and keep watch.

When I asked Billy why he made his bed against the corral in rotten
wood, when so many better places offered, he replied that he "wished to
be as near the sheep as possible in case bears should attack them." Now
that the bears have come, he has moved his bed to the far side of the
camp, and seems afraid that he may be mistaken for a sheep.

This has been mostly a sheep day, and of course studies have been
interrupted. Nevertheless, the walk through the gloom of the woods
before the dawn was worth while, and I have learned something about
these noble bears. Their tracks are very telling, and so are their
breakfasts. Scarce a trace of clouds to-day, and of course our ordinary
midday thunder is wanting.

_August 6._ Enjoyed the grand illumination of the camp grove, last
night, from the fire we made to frighten the bears--compensation for
loss of sleep and sheep. The noble pillars of verdure, vividly aglow,
seemed to shoot into the sky like the flames that lighted them.
Nevertheless, one of the bears paid us another visit, as if more
attracted than repelled by the fire, climbed