134 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



to be escorted by paterfamilias. It seemed to me 

 that in between courting times the males of the bear 

 tribe roam alone, seeking " the great waste places," 

 like the very much married gentleman in Ibsen. 

 Lo ! here, evidently, was a big bear doing the heavy 

 father to the top of his bent, for, looking closely, 

 I saw him cuff the larger cub as though to teach it 

 better manners. 



The old bears were turning over the salmon, and 

 our difficulty was to get within range unobserved, 

 since there was no cover, only the patch of alders 

 which grew in some profusion on the far side of the 

 bears. 



Here I suggested an entirely novel way of stalk- 

 ing, namely, that we should get back a little and 

 work round until we were dead level with the patch 

 of alder cover the bears would have to make for, and 

 then, at the right moment, with nothing but the open 

 ground between us, it would simply be who could 

 run the fastest. It would be three points of a 

 triangle, the bears in the open, ourselves preparing 

 to run into the open ground, and all making straight 

 for the scrubby bushes. The Leader formally 

 adopted this plan because he could not think up a 

 better; besides, it was such a chance anyway that 

 we could detach Mr. Bruin, if Mr. Bruin he proved 

 to be, from the bosom of his family, and of course 

 we had no intention of trying to bag Madam or the 

 little ones. 



The whole thing worked like a charm at first. Our 

 hunter remained at the spot from which we first 



