120 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



could not altogether control my companions, neither 

 Achil nor the Indian being in sympathy with what they 

 thought silly squeamishness. The hides of the animals 

 were certainly useful to us, and also the grease. From 

 the last we not only made a large store of candles, 

 using small rushes for wicks, but the tallow mixed with 

 wood ashes made an excellent soap. 



As to the venison, we might have supplied twenty 

 or thirty men all the winter with it. Frozen, it remained 

 good till the spring, and most of it was lost from mere 

 wantonness. Thrown about near the hut it attracted 

 numerous wolves and foxes ; insomuch that we trapped, 

 or shot, forty-nine of the former and a hundred and eight 

 of the latter during the winter. A solitary glutton was 

 also trapped, the only occasion on which I knew one of 

 these cunning brutes to be caught. It was taken in a 

 steel trap hidden under the loose snow, and its atti- 

 tude, and expression of its face when approached 

 were diabolical. It screamed and fought, and tried to 

 fly at us, and showed far more tenacity of life than a 

 fox, repeated blows being required to kill it. 



An incident occurred early in December (the 5th), 

 which raises an interesting question. Is the hibernation 

 of bears continuous throughout the winter ? or is it 

 broken at intervals ? There can be no doubt, I think, that 

 the latter is the case. I have seen bears about in 

 the snow ; but am not sure that the hibernation had 

 commenced in these cases. On the day named we found 

 the tracks of a bear on the snow } and traced them for a 

 mile and a h.alf to a cave in the bank of the stream. 

 Though the tracks did not seem to be very fresh, they 

 must have been made long after the first heavy fall 

 of snow, and since the last, or they would have been 

 covered. 



That the bear was in the cave there was no doubt, 

 and various expedients were tried to arouse it without 

 success, and at last one of us cautiously ventured in 



