A TASTE OF MAINE BIRCH. 131 



side of them. So he considers the lay of the land, the 

 direction of the wind, the time of day, the depth of 

 the snow, examines the spoor, the cropped twigs, and 

 studies every hint and clew like a detective. Uncle 

 Nathan said he could not explain to another how he 

 did it, but he could usually tell in a few minutes in 

 what direction to look for the game. His experience 

 had ripened into a kind of intuition or winged reason- 

 ing that was above rules. 



He said that most large game, deer, caribou, moose, 

 bear, when started by the hunter and not much 

 scared, were sure to stop and look back before disap- 

 pearing from sight ; he usually waited for this last 

 and best chance to fire. He told us of a huge bear 

 he had seen one morning while still-hunting foxes in 

 the fields ; the bear saw him, and got into the woods 

 before he could get a good shot. In her course some 

 distance up the mountain was a bald, open spot, and 

 he felt sure when she crossed this spot she would 

 pause and look behind her ; and sure enough, like 

 Lot's wife, her curiosity got the better of her ; she 

 stopped to have a final look, and her travels ended 

 there and then. 



Uncle Nathan had trapped and shot a great many 

 bears, and some of his experiences revealed an un- 

 usual degree of sagacity in this animal. One April, 

 when the weather began to get warm and thawy, an 

 old bear left her den in the rocks, and built a large, 

 warm nest of grass, leaves, and the bark of the white 

 cedar, under a tall balsam fir that stood in a low, 



