Bear Hunt in the Rockies

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Many pictures have been made of wild animals, but always, so far as we know, under conditions of captivity. In this picture, however, there is not the slightest departure from absolutely natural conditions. Nor is there any attempt at acting. An actual bear hunt is reproduced just as it occurred from the beginning to the end. Our representative was sent to Marble, Col., where he joined the camping outfit of Frank Dickens, hunter and guide, well known to all who hunt big game in that section of the country. Through the magic aid of the camera everyone who sees this picture is privileged to leave with the hunting party and to journey through the indescribably beautiful scenery of Colorado in the quest for the bear. We go through gorges and over mountains, penetrate forests and follow mountain trails where safety lies only in the surefooted horses; and all this in the very heart of the Rockies, with the snow-capped peaks showing in the distance. The altitude is about 10,000 feet, and both horse and man can do only a limited amount of work on account of the rarefied air. We go into camp, and from there we start on our actual hunt, accompanied by our dogs, barking in exultant chorus. The big bear is first seen swimming a stream from which a young woman is catching trout. The encounter is not at all to her liking, and she beats a precipitate retreat to camp. Taking advantage of the campers' absence, Bruin later on enters the camp, steals a grouse hanging alongside one of the tents and disappears with it into the forest. Here his quiet is broken by the having of the dogs, and this is the beginning of his end. We see him treed, the fatal shot fired which brings him to the ground, the fight with the dogs, and finally we see Bruin thrown across a horse's back and the journey back to camp. En route a young cub is roped and brought into camp in that manner, and the final scene shows the big bear swung up, with the dead cub on the ground.