to tie their feet together, and their mouths shut.

With ready cord, I dived headlong upon a cub, caught him by the scruff
of the neck, lifted him triumphantly--then dropped him unceremoniously,
the end of a finger badly bitten. I was compelled to return to my
cabin for a sack, because the amount of tying required to render the
cubs really harmless seemed likely to choke them to death before I got
them home. It required about an hour's lively tussle to get the two
young grizzlies stowed safely in the sack. But I learned that having
them sacked was no guarantee of getting them home.

If "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," a bear at home,
chained up, is worth the whole Rockies' full in the woods.

The old grizzly's hide, paws included, must have weighed fifty pounds;
the cubs, sacked, thirty--a total load of 80 pounds to carry out over
rocks and fallen trees, through bog and willows. With this load on my
back, I struggled to my feet and started, picking my way slowly,
circling logs and avoiding soft spots. The first half mile was the
best, after that things thickened up, the bog deepened, the bears
wanted to get out and walk.

Where the stream emerges from between a wide moraine and Meeker
Mountain, it is not broad, nor very deep, but it is exceedingly cold
and swift, and the only crossing was a beaver-felled aspen, which lay
top-foremost toward me, presenting an array of limbs that served as
banisters. About midway over the limbs gave out, leaving the smooth
aspen trunk as a foot-log. Many times I had crossed this without
mishap, so I had no qualms about tackling it now. Deliberately I edged
along, stepping slowly, carefully, progressing nicely until about
midway. Just then one of the cubs sank his teeth into my back. I
jerked away, twisted, tottered, half regained my balance, then pitched
headlong into the icy water of the beaver pond beneath.

For a moment there was a grand melee. The cubs did not like the ice
water any more than I. They squirmed and clawed, fought free of the
sack, and lightened my load considerably. I spent a busy hour catching
and sacking them again.

It required six hours to transport those cubs four miles! And I'm sure
they were as thankful as their ferry when the trip ended at my cabin.

From the first week in June until the middle of December, they grew
from fifteen pounds to forty each. Although they were interesting
pets, their keep became a problem. Such app