THE BLA CK BEAR. \ 1 



lesson I have not forgotten. Having expressed a desire to 

 an acquaintance, who farmed in summer and hunted in 

 winter, to go on a " bearing " expedition, he kindly assent- 

 ed to my proposal, and made preparations for it by cook- 

 ing plenty of food, and securing two mustangs, or cayuses, 

 as they are called in the North-west, to transport our 

 blankets and provisions out and our game back, as we in- 

 tended to be absent two or three days. Our armament 

 consisted of a muzzle-loading rifle which I carried, and a 

 shot-gun borne by my comrade ; our food was confined to 

 boiled mutton and home-made bread ; and our companions 

 to two small, active, and noisy curs, which thought it nec- 

 essary to bark at every bird and animal they saw. Hav- 

 ing started at 6 A.M., we found ourselves about twelve 

 miles from home by mid-day, and deeply immerged in a 

 .dense forest of those gigantic firs and spruces indigenous 

 to the North-west. After resting for a few minutes to load 

 our guns and to eat a simple repast, which was washed 

 down with water, we went searching for bear " signs," and 

 soon found them plentiful enough ; for the berries were 

 cleaned off quite a large patch of bushes, old logs had been 

 stripped of their bark where they concealed grubs and 

 ants, and some of the young trees contained marks of a 

 large male's teeth, which was advertising his presence 

 and portliness by placing his sign -manual as high upon 

 them as he could reach. It is a peculiarity of the male 

 that he will sometimes leave the impressions of his teeth 

 as high up on some of the undergrowth as he can reach, 

 as if he were desirous of making his dimensions known to 

 other members of his family. What this signifies no one 

 seems to know, though the surmises are many. Having 

 noted these, the dogs, which had been previously kept at 

 heel, were set to work to arouse the advertiser, and in less 

 than ten minutes they were yelping in their loudest tone. 

 I ran in one direction on hearing this notification, and my 

 companion in the opposite, so that we might head off the 

 game should it break from a straight course. After run- 

 ning for a few minutes, I saw a dark object dodging 



