298 CASUALS IN THE CAUCASUS 



really big rivers, going with the current, after salmon, 

 but with a delicate finesse all his own. 



He lay extended, face down, on a rotting log lying 

 across a narrow stream, and for the moment I couldn't 

 think why this black sleeping beauty had sought so 

 hard a resting-place. All I could see was the rearward 

 of him, his quaint upturned soles, and spear-like 

 slightly-curved claws, and it wasn't until I had 

 adroitly worked myself round to a thicket in his front 

 that I gathered the drift of his peculiar attitude at all. 

 So intent was the bear on his occupation that my 

 passing did not interest him, and once I had to creep 

 across a perfectly open glade, in full sight of him, had 

 he but chosen to look up. 



Bruin was catching baby trout, and a bright-sided 

 fish whom I cannot name, in dozens with his open 

 paw ! Thrusting his fore-arm deep, deep into the 

 water he patiently held it there long enough to persuade 

 the piscine army below that there was nothing to be 

 afraid of. The fish gathered about the trap because 

 the oil in the paw was an irresistible attraction, and 

 the spear-like claws were excellent imitations of hooks. 

 Ever and again the fisherman withdrew his paw, closed 

 on a fistful of shining silver, which he released most 

 carefully, and ate in ones with manifest enjoyment, 

 beginning on each tiny fish, so small that one would 

 have said the largest was beneath the notice of a bear, 

 at the tail end. As he neared the head he snapped it 

 off and spat it clear away, with a little puff which 

 sounded quite clearly on the intense silence. After 

 each separate banquet he meditated awhile, as though 



