82 A PROFESSIONAL BEAR-HUNTER. 



food but this can a man do so much work or go so far, which 

 seems likely, as it is one half fat. In the Hudson's Bay 

 Company it is the regular winter food for all the employes, or 

 I should say was till the buffalo was exterminated, which is 

 now practically the case. 



Further north, a great many white fish are caught in nets set 

 through holes in the ice, and these are nearly as nourishing as 

 pemmican. A man gets 2 Ib. of pemmican or 6 fish a day, and 

 a dog when in work the same. When not working, these last 

 are supposed to require no food, or at all events they do not get 

 it. In cooking two fish, which is generally done by standing a 

 frying-pan with them in it in front of the fire at a considerable 

 angle, the men get generally about a quarter of a pint of oil, 

 these fish being very fat, and this they burn in their lamps. 

 It is a curious sight to see the frozen fish stacked in the 

 yards of the northern forts, each being as hard as a stone, 

 and in this state they are kept five or six months. 



On this occasion I met at the Fort the first Indian I ever 

 knew who was a professional bear-hunter, and this he continued 

 to be in spite of the dreadful manner in which one bear had 

 torn him. His only weapon was what is called a trade gun. 

 This man was following the trail of a large grizzly, and coming 

 on him very suddenly the bear charged him ; he at once fired 

 steadily at the horse-shoe on the chest but failed to stop him, 

 and knowing that he could not escape by running, and that a 

 bear will very seldom touch any portion of a living man but his 

 face, he threw himself down and held his face firmly to the 

 ground; the bear came up and tried to turn him over, but 

 failing in this bit one of his legs and then sat down and looked 

 at him for a minute; he then got up and walked off slowly, 



