180 TRUE BEAR STORIES.

would have nothing worse than the coyotes
to encounter. Every night after that, so
long as the hunters were in that camp, the
Basque came and sat at the fire until bed-
time, talking about los osos, and when the
grass and water gave out and the expedi-
tion was obliged to move camp about two
miles, the gentle shepherd packed his blan-
kets over the trail to Bakersfield, leaving
his flock in the care of a leathery skinned
bear-hardened Mexican.

The bears were later this year than usual
in coming to the mountain, probably be-
cause the warm weather was longer de-
layed, and for many days the hunters
scanned the trails in the canyons in vain
for the footprints of grizzlies. The first
indication of their arrival was given in a
somewhat startling way to the correspon-
dent one evening as he was slowly toiling
through a deep, rocky ravine back to camp,
after a weary tramp over the foothills of
the big mountain.

The sun had set and the bottom of the