92 BEAR STORIES 



passed on his way there was another black fox in 

 in. Decidedly he was in luck, but it made him 

 thoughtful. Two black foxes in succession was 

 rare luck, but even this might happen without 

 any supernatural agency. The trap was reset 

 again, and strange as it may appear, another 

 black fox waj caught next day. This was alto- 

 gether too much for him. He raised the trap and 

 went back to his wigwam. Meeting his wife he 

 told her that the Evil Spirit was stuffing his 

 traps. "I shall not hunt again," he said. "I 

 am going to die soon." Nothing could get this 

 idea out of his head. He raised all his traps and 

 hunted only for meat. In the spring, when the 

 ice on the rivers broke up, he returned to Bersi- 

 mis, where, as bad luck would have it, he died 

 that same summer. Fifty years of missionary 

 work will not eradicate the superstitious belief 

 that one chance circumstance like this will 

 engender. 



Though I have heard any number of stories to 

 the contrary, my own experience with the black 

 bear is, that he will always run away from man 

 if he has the chance. Of course, if wounded or 

 cornered, he will show fight just the same as a 

 much smaller animal would do. In cases like 

 this he can be nasty, because he is a powerful 

 brute. Some years ago, when porpoise oil was 

 selling at seventy-five to eighty cents per gallon, 

 porpoise shooting was quite a business here, 



