At dark I made camp at timber-line and forgot about the bear. The
slicker was hung over a pole against a cliff to drain and dry. I went to
sleep about eleven o'clock, after writing up my notes and watching my
camp-fire. During the night the grizzly came boldly into camp, reared
up, and slit the slicker. My shoes near by had not been noticed; the
bacon and raisins swinging from a limb had not interested his keen nose.
He was interested only in that slicker.
This was a case where the grizzly's curiosity might have got him into
trouble. So intent was he on seeing this one thing that for hours he had
forgotten food-hunting and followed me; and then in order to have a
closer examination of it he must have waited near my camp two or three
hours until I had lain down.
Another time, in the Yellowstone, while I was sleeping out, a big
grizzly who had followed me all day came to give me closer inspection. I
was awakened by his lightly clawing my bed. I opened my eyes and watched
him for some seconds and lay perfectly still while he sniffed me over.
After several seconds of this he appeared to have satisfied his
curiosity and walked quietly away beneath the stars.
As I was trying to flash information with a looking-glass from Mount
Lincoln to a prospector down in the valley one day, a grizzly became
attracted by the flashes and lay down to watch them circle and shimmer
here and there. In the San Juan Mountains a prospector once lost a wheel
from a rude cart which he was hauling up a steep, roadless slope. As the
detached wheel went bounding down and across the bottom of the gulch, a
grizzly hit an attitude of attention and watched it. He became excited
as it leaped and rushed up the opposite slope, and when it rolled over
he approached cautiously to see what manner of thing it might be. A
grizzly sat down on his haunches to watch the uncertain movements of an
umbrella which had taken advantage of a wind-storm to desert a
mountain-top artist. He observed the disheveled umbrella with the
greatest enjoyment as it danced across the moorland, and was
particularly interested when a whirl sent it high into the air.
Riding a lazy pony slowly, silently, along a trail in the San Juan
Mountains, I came close upon a grizzly and three cubs. They aroused the
deep emotional nature of my pony. He took on new and fiery life, and in
his eagerness to reach a high mountain across the cañon he forgot all
about the topography--the cañon that lay deep between. While he was
standing on one hind foot on the edge of the cañon I leaped from the
saddle. The old bear and cubs, forgetting all possible danger, while he
was thus performing stood up to watch the entire exhibition.