254 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



this point the unwisdom of engaging scouts and 

 guides on no recommendation save their own. The 

 small towns that lie upon the outskirts of the big 

 forests and prairies swarm with these gentlemen, 

 and very few of them are worth a pinch of salt. 

 Your honest trapper is in the woods, not lounging 

 about a saloon or hotel, and it is only he who can 

 show you first-rate sport, and he, remember, may 

 always fail. Pay him well, and let it be plainly 

 understood between you that he is not to shoot 

 without orders. I remember one man — a very 

 fine shot — who advertised in the local paper as 

 follows: "John Doe undertakes to show gentle- 

 men and sportsmen wild goats. Success certain. 

 It is always yotcr goat." 



There are numbers of small black bear upon the 

 Pacific Slope, but these afford tame sport. They 

 are easily treed by dogs, and easily killed. In the 

 woods and forests near the coast of northern Cali- 

 fornia and Oregon, you are sure to find them if you 

 are patient ; but all bears, remember, are extraordi- 

 narily cunning and gifted with amazing powers of 

 scent. I have been in skunk-cabbage swamps in 

 Vancouver Island, where sign was plentiful, but 

 bruin invisible ; and once, in British Columbia, my 

 brothers and I found a thicket where the tracks in 

 and around the berry patches were innumerable; 

 but not a bear did we shoot or see. 



To-day, the best hunting ground is to be found 

 upon the banks of the many rivers and streams which 

 empty into the Northern Pacific. All bears love 

 fish and berries, but, unfortunately (for the sports- 

 man), at the time when the berries are ripe and the 



