210 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



found Mr. O'B., seated on a fallen tree, bawling with 

 all liis might. After this, neither of the men would 

 go back for him, and the duty devolved upon us. 

 Mr. O'B. was a man of most marvellous timidity. 

 His fears rendered his life a burden to him. But of 

 all the things he dreaded — and their name was legion 

 — his particular horror was a grisly bear. On this 

 point he was a complete monomaniac. He had never 

 yet seen a grisly bear, but he was in the daily ex- 

 pectation of meeting one of these terrible animals, and 

 a sanguinary and untimely end at the same time. 

 As he walked through the forest, the rustle of every 

 leaf and the creaking of the trunks seemed, to his 

 anxious mind, to herald the approach of his dreaded 

 enemy. The Assiniboine, taking advantage of his 

 weakness, cured him for a time of his carelessness in 

 losing sight of the party, by lying in wait, hid 

 amongst the trees close to the track, and as Mr. O'B. 

 passed by, set up a most horrible growling, which 

 caused him to take to his heels incontinently, and for 

 several days he kept near protection. As we sat round 

 the camp-fire one evening, a rustling in the bushes 

 attracted our attention, and we were startled for a 

 moment by the sight of a dark, shaggy object moving 

 along, which, in the dim, fitful fire-light, looked very 

 like a bear. Mr. O'B. rushed up to us in abject 

 terror, when the animal, passing into clearer view, 

 disclosed a foot clothed in a moccasin, and we recog- 

 nised the boy, enveloped in a buffalo robe, and creeping 

 on all fours, to practise on the fears of " Le Vieux." 

 On the third day after lea\dng Pembina Eiver, 



