56 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



different temperature, it condensed, and forme'd 

 thousands of tiny cascades in the rocks. 



After a very disappointing day as regards sport, 

 without the encouragement of coming on the smallest 

 traces of bears, save evidences of year-old perambula- 

 tions, the Leader and Ralph decided to trek on the 

 morrow to some distant bays and try their luck there. 

 We chose the two best-tempered hunters to remain 

 with us, and settled down to stalk the country for 

 miles round. 



For three whole days Cecily and I roamed those 

 hillsides, wandered by the river, swept the country 

 with anxious glasses, and did all we knew to find the 

 smallest evidence that Kodiak was then inhabited 

 by bears at all. With no result, and we could not 

 help being a trifle cast down. Our luck seemed won- 

 derfully on the up-grade when, within three miles of 

 camp, we struck the trail of a large-footed bear, 

 hitherto overlooked. It was quite recent, damp and 

 oozy, and the ground yielded up the secret of the 

 passing of a monster creature. Our hands trembled 

 with excitement as we got out the tape. The impress 

 of the hind feet measured fourteen and a quarter 

 inches in length, so we judged we were really on the 

 way at last to bagging a worth-having specimen of 

 the bear tribe. From the crisscross of fainter tracks 

 we judged that Bruin had come this way to the river 

 very often. 



We followed along the trail for some way, sinking 

 up to our knees in swampy ground in places, in others 

 held back by a veritable fastness of alders and inter- 



