94 BEAR STORIES 



the weight had kept the butt in place, so that it 

 formed a sort of half bridge, the root high up the 

 bank and the tip at the bottom of the river. 

 Right near the water the bear was sitting on his 

 haunches, snapping at the deer flies with his 

 mouth, or occasionally whisking them off with 

 his fore paws. I could easily have shot him from 

 where I was, but his pelt was no good, being out 

 of season, and we did not want the meat, so it 

 would have been only waste to kill him. A 

 fancy struck me however to give him a fright 

 and make him drop in the water. So I told my 

 brother what I wanted to do; namely, to sneak 

 up quietly along the river until we were within a 

 few yards of him, and then fire a shot and so 

 dump him in the river. We got our canoe very 

 cautiously in the water, and getting my gun 

 ready in the bow, we both of us squatted right 

 down in the bottom of the canoe, and without 

 lifting our paddles out of the water we crept up 

 very slowly. There was hardly any wind, but 

 what little there was came down the river, thus 

 giving us a chance. On we crept, never making 

 a move if he happened to look in our direction, 

 but as soon as he was busy with the flies we would 

 shove along. When we got about thirty feet 

 from him I raised my paddle noiselessly over the 

 side and rested it on the bars of the canoe 

 behind me. I then got hold of my gun, and was 

 just steadying myself to fire in the air, when the 



