the tree, found my rifle to be in an effective condition, rammed down the ball, put on a cap and ran for a tree standing outside of the chapparal brush--listened and looked; and I quickly saw him. He had run into the forks of a felled tree and had all the appearance of life. I fired at the butt of his ear, but he did not move. I reloaded and carefully approached him and found him to be dead. He was poor, but was estimated to weigh some two hundred and fifty or three hundred pounds. We took his pelt, and after a good deal of persuasion and blindfolding my riding-horse took it into camp. Moral: no man has the right to hunt grizzly bear with a muzzle-loading rifle and muzzle-tight at that. I have several times since then, either alone or with a hunting companion, met them, and with a Remington repeater found no difficulty in commanding the situation. The winter of 1852-'53 was distinguished for--so far as the memory of the oldest inhabitants recalled--its unprecedented deep fall of snow. Rogue River Valley is rimmed around on all sides by high ranges of mountains. These mountain ranges were rendered impassable for pack trains or other modes of transportation. The supply of provisions in the mines grew less and less, until it was nearly exhausted. Flour and beef, the staples of the miners' diet, went up to a dollar a pound and more; salt was worth nearly its weight in gold. This was the result of a corner, however. In these circumstances myself and three partners, who had purchased some mining claims a considerable distance down Rogue River, took our blankets, rifles and a scanty supply of provisions on our backs and started for our claims. It was with some difficulty that we were able to reach them. They were gulch claims, and if intelligently worked under fair conditions of the weather would yield about an ounce a day to each laborer. We commenced work on them, but the weather was so inclement and the snow fall so continuous that we suspended. I ought to have stated that there was quite a good log cabin on the claims. My partners all claimed to be good hunters, but showed no disposition to try or show their skill in that regard. I did all the hunting and succeeded in keeping the camp quite well supplied with venison. I finally tired of their masterly inactivity, and my strenuous work in wallowing about in the snow.