On a hunting trip in Kern county, Mr. Searles had a remarkable run of
luck and piled three bears in a heap without moving out of his tracks
or getting the least sign of fight. It was so easy that he insisted
upon going right through the Tehachepi range and killing all the
Grizzlies infesting the mountains. He and his party made camp in
March, 1870, not far from the headquarters of General Beale's Liebra
ranch in the northern part of Los Angeles county. Romulo Pico was then
in charge at the Liebra, and nearly thirty years later, while hunting a
notorious bear on the scene of Searles's adventure, he told me the
story of the fight.

Searles was armed with a Spencer repeater but had shot away the
ammunition adapted to the rifle and had been able to procure only some
cartridges which fitted the chamber so badly that two blows of the
hammer were generally required to explode one of them. Notwithstanding
this serious defect of his weapon, Searles had so poor an opinion of
the Grizzly that he went out alone after the bear several miles from
camp. There was some snow on the ground and on the brush, and finding
bear tracks, Searles tied his horse and took the trail afoot. He found
a bear lying asleep under the brush and killed it, and while he was
standing over the body he heard another bear breaking brush in a
thicket not far away.

Leaving the dead bear, he took up the trail of its mate and followed
until his clothing was soaked with melting snow and the daylight was
almost gone. The bear halted in a dense thicket and Searles began
working his way through the chaparral to stir him up. Of course the
bear was not where his tracks seemed to indicate him to be, and the
meeting was sudden and unexpected. The bear rose within two feet of
the hunter and almost behind him. There was neither time nor room to