CHAP. xni. THE EARLY MORN IN LABRADOR. 211 



go to sleep again lest I should miss the opportunity. At 

 two I stole away, and after half an hour reached the 

 summit of a hill, which I had visited the evening before, 

 and selected as the spot where I could sit and watch. It 

 was morning twilight when I reached my point of observa- 

 tion, and the stars were unclouded. 



Not the faintest mist was visible, and not a breath of 

 air disturbed a leaf to break the perfect silence that 

 reigned. It was far too cold for the mosquitoes ; they 

 scarcely trouble one when an aurora is quivering in the 

 north, as it did on that cold summer morning. As the 

 light increased, but long before the sun had risen, three 

 ducks alighted on the lake and began to feed. I distin- 



o o 



guLslied a black object walking slowly on the sandy beach 

 in the direction of our tents, and stopping now and then 

 to look at the water ; with my glass I saw it was a bear, 

 not half a mile aAvay, hunting for dead fish. He approached 

 slowly, and was evidently intent upon finding a morning 

 meal. While watching his gradual approach with beating 

 heart, I saw him raise his head and sniff the air. Satisfied 

 of its purity, he continued to advance, and, had he kept 

 the beach, he would have passed within one hundred 

 yards of where I was sitting on the soft caribou moss ; 

 but he soon raised his head again, and, gently swaying it 

 backwards and forwards, sniffed the air suspiciously. He 

 smelt the smoke of our fire, the embers of which were 

 still alive. It was enough to turn him, for after a pause 

 he retreated for a hundred yards or so on the beach, 

 and then went into the woods. Disappointed and dis- 

 couraged, I went to the other side of the hill to survey 

 the magnificent caribou grounds we had passed the day 



p 2 



