THE BEAR “MONARCH.” 197

tention of the hunters for some time. He
was an audacious marauder and killed his
beef almost within sight of the camp-fire.
Often at night a cow or steer could be
heard bellowing in terror, and in the morn-
ing a freshly killed animal would be found
in some hollow not far away, bearing
marks of bear’s claws. Whitened bones
scattered all over the hills showed that the
bear had been the boss butcher of General
Beal’s ranch for a long time. His average
allowance of beef appeared to be about two
steers a week, but he usually ate only half
a carcass, leaving the rest to the coyotes
and vultures.

One morning Bowers returned from a
hunt for the horses, two of which had been
struck and slightly wounded by the bear
a few nights before, and had run away,
and reported the discovery of ‘a dead steer
within 150 yards of an unfinished trap,
about a quarter of a mile from camp. The
animal appeared to have been killed two
nights before, and the bear had made but