THE BEAR “MONARCH.” 187

killed it, and sat down within thirty yards
of the herder and leisurely gorged himself
with mutton. The Mexican herder de-
scribed him as “grande” and “muy blanco”
and said he was as tall asa mule. On the
following day at noon the same bear went
into another sheep camp about three miles
from the mill, and stole a freshly killed
sheep, which the herder had hung up for
his own use. Then he suddenly ceased his
raids and disappeared and for the next
three weeks the mountain seemed to be
deserted by the bears.

The herders had put strychnine into the
carcasses of several sheep that had died
of eating poisonous weeds, and McCul-
lough thought the bears must have eaten
the poisoned mutton and become sick. It
requires a strong dose of strychnine to kill
a grizzly, and frequently the bears get only
enough to make them ill and send them
into temporary retirement in some dark
gorge.

But while the bears were away the
13