150 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



the winter there. Rungius and Osgood appeared later 

 and we passed the night in the cabin. While floating 

 down they had seen two lynxes. Bird life in the Mac- 

 Millan was then almost absent a few mergansers, a 

 golden eagle, and the one ptarmigan were all I had seen 

 while coming down the river. 



October 5. The canoes had been well mended, but 

 next morning the ice, frozen together in large cakes, was 

 running so dense that we felt some apprehension about 

 getting down before the river was blocked. In many 

 places we could not push through it, but were obliged to 

 let the canoes drift until an opening could be found where 

 we could reach channels of clear water. A mile down 

 from the cabin, near the top of a hill on the right, a fine 

 black bear was seen feeding on berries, and insisting 

 that Selous should go after it, we backed our canoes in 

 the ice on the opposite side as he went ashore. He soon 

 disappeared in the thick brush on the hillside. But a 

 moment after, the bear, having caught the wind blowing 

 toward it from the boats, threw up its head, sniffed the 

 air, and ran off. It disappeared before Selous could get 

 close enough to shoot. While approaching, he had seen 

 it through the brush several times but could not get 

 an unobstructed line for a shot. Early in the afternoon, 

 shortly before reaching the Pelly, I saw a lynx walking 

 on a bar and undershot it three times before it ran into 

 the woods. After making camp on a bank of the Pelly, 

 Louis heard a bull moose grunting not far off and Selous 

 accompanied him into the woods where he tried to coax 

 it with a horn, but it was not heard again. 



