About this time, the miners who camped on Otter Creek were horribly scared by the nocturnal visits of a large grizzly bear, who came prowling round their tents, and carried off sundry legs of bacon that were hanging on trees before their doors. As our tents would prove a slight protection, in case he should desire to extend his acquaintance, it was determined, if possible, to rout the enemy out of the neighbourhood.
Accordingly, one fine morning, long before the sun had gilded the topmost edge of our western boundary, a party of ten or twelve bold hunters started off in pursuit, firmly resolved not to return without a trophy; and, though I had never been hunting in my life, I could not withstand the temptation to accompany them.
I slung a heavy rifle over my shoulder, and the whole party, after advancing several miles up the Creek, began slowly to ascend the mountain, following without difficulty the rude trail of the slouching monster; till being at length, as we supposed, somewhere in his vicinity, we halted to arrange our plan of operations. The place where we stood was directly under a low, steep bank, and had evidently been occupied as a lair by the animal, as it was easy to see the hollow he had scooped out for his bed, and the coarse dark hair sticking in little tufts, where he had rubbed himself against the rocks.
"Now, boys!" said our leader, who had taken that office upon himself, by virtue of his greater skill and experience, "the plaguey varmint is somewhere here about, I reckon; so we may as well be all ready for him; for when he does come, he'll likely be pooty sudden and uproarious. But don't go to being skeered, but jist wait till you ken see the white of his eyes, and then blaze away."
"Never mind, cap'n, about our being afraid, but just tell us how we're agoing to find him; we might scuttle about among these everlasting bushes for a month without—"
"Oh, don't you be alarmed," interrupted a third, "we'll find him soon enough, I'll warrant;" and the words were hardly out of his mouth, before they were followed by a something between a snort and a roar, that seemed to come from over our heads, and almost in our very ears.
Raising our eyes all at once to the bank above, we saw the bushes parted by the pointed head, leg-of-mutton-paws, and monstrous front of a full-grown grizzly, apparently in the very act of springing upon us. His coming had, indeed, been sudden and uproarious in the last degree; no one thought of waiting till he could see the white of his eyes, but away we went, over rocks and bushes, like a bevy of partridges, in every direction; and, so successfully did we execute this manœuvre, that no two of us were left together, and we came into the camp, one after the other, all the rest of the day, with the unanimous conviction, that if we had frightened the bear half so much as he had frightened us, he would never pay us a second visit.
This incident produced a good deal of mirth at our expense, and was the occasion of several entertaining stories. An old backwoodsman who had lived many years in Oregon was listened to with the greatest attention.
He was hunting one day in the mountains with a single companion, when coming to a little clump of rocks and bushes, they each took a different path intending to meet at the other end. On reaching the spot, however, he saw nothing of his companion; but hearing just then the report of a rifle, he walked round the other side to see what was going on. He had not gone far when he came upon a large grizzly bear sitting upright on the snow like a dog, but not a man was in sight. Wondering what all this could mean he took deliberate aim and fired, when the brute sprang growling towards him, but suddenly stopped and then walked slowly off in another direction.
Anxious to learn what had befallen his friend the hunter left the bear, and continued his search; and the next moment coming to the place where the bear had been sitting, he found his companion pressed down into the snow, and almost suffocated by his close confinement. It seems he had fired at the bear, who had rushed upon him before he could reload, and throwing him down without inflicting any serious injury, had then expressed his contempt in the most emphatic manner by seating himself directly upon his prostrate foe.