Then he
began to circle about and look for the bear's footprints or nail-prints
upon the frozen snow. Not finding them the first time, he took a
larger circle, then a still larger; finally he made a long detour,
and spent nearly an hour searching for some clew to the direction the
bear had taken, but all to no purpose. Then he returned to the tree
and scrutinized it. The foliage was very dense, but presently he made
out one of the cubs near the top, standing up amid the branches, and
peering down at him. This he killed. Further search only revealed a
mass of foliage apparently more dense than usual, but a bullet sent
into it was followed by loud whimpering and crying, and the other baby
bear came tumbling down. In leaving the place, greatly puzzled as to
what had become of the mother bear, Uncle Nathan followed another of
her frozen tracks, and after about a quarter of a mile saw beside it,
upon the snow, the fresh trail he had been in search of. In making her
escape the bear had stepped exactly in her old tracks that were hard
and icy, and had thus left no mark till she took to the snow again.
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