24 TRUE BEAR STORIES. 



posed to tarry. In another second he had 

 swung to the ground and was making a 

 thousand graceful curves in the swift 

 water for the further bank. 



The world, even the world of books, 

 seems to know nothing at all about the 

 wonderful snakes that live in the woods. 

 The woods rattlesnake is as large as at 

 least twenty ordinary rattlesnakes; and 

 Indians say it is entirely harmless. The 

 enormous black snake, I know, is entirely 

 without venom. In all my life, spent most- 

 ly in the camp, I have seen only three of 

 those monstrous yellow woods rattle- 

 snakes; one in Indiana, one in Oregon and 

 the other on this occasion here on the 

 banks of the McCloud. Such bright eyes! 

 It was hard to stop looking at them. 



Meantime a good many bears had come 

 and gone. The bear is a good swimmer, 

 and takes to the water without fear. He 

 is, in truth, quite a fisherman; so much of 

 a fisherman, in fact, that in salmon season 

 here his flesh is unfit for food. The pitiful 



