6 The Black Bear 



It must have been an amusing procession, for the old 

 bear was ploughing her way through the soft and slushy 

 snow, making large holes into which the baby bears 

 would fall, and out of which, being so small, they were 

 scarcely able to flounder. They were quite unable, 

 therefore, to keep the pace set by their mother, and the 

 old bear would slouch along for a while and then sit 

 down and watch them as they struggled to catch up. 

 And all the time they kept up the whimpering, crying 

 sound that had attracted Jack's attention. 



But I am afraid O'Brien was more interested in bear 

 meat than in bear habits, for as soon as these animals 

 drew near his hiding-place he let loose the dog, who 

 drove the mother up one tree and the cubs up another; 

 and having shot the old one and decided that it might 

 be possible to catch the youngsters alive next day, 

 he returned to camp. 



The next morning, as soon as we had had breakfast, 

 we put pack saddles on a couple of ponies and, taking 

 some empty gunny-sacks along in which to put the 

 cubs if we caught them, started out to bring in the 

 meat and hide of the old bear. It had come on to 

 rain again during the night, and a cold drizzle was fall- 

 ing as we started out ; and in that steep-sided and un- 

 broken wilderness, half buried in the melting snows of a 

 mountain winter, the going was both slow and dan- 

 gerous. However, we managed to reach the bottom 

 of the ravine where Jack had seen the bears without 



