A BLACK ANIMAL. 353 



took down to the river, returning the same 

 evening. Whilst they were away I took a 

 round over the mountains by myself. 



About a mile beyond the little hill, near to 

 which I had shot the second caribou on 

 August 30th, I saw a lot of ravens fly up 

 into the air, and judged that something must 

 have disturbed them at the carcase. I hoped 

 it might be a grizzly bear, so at once went 

 to see. 



Coming up under the wind and following 

 a depression in the ground, I got within two 

 hundred yards of where I had killed the 

 caribou without giving any animal on the 

 ground a chance of seeing me. Then raising 

 my head I looked towards the remains of the 

 caribou, and at once saw a black animal 

 standing there, which I took to be a small 

 black bear. 



There were a lot of ravens sitting on the 



ground near it, and as many more hovering 



about in the air above. Some of these latter 



kept croaking loudly, and had no doubt 



seen me. The black animal kept looking 



23 



