1 6 BEARS AND BEAVERS. 



Adjoining the bluff a fine deep river enters the 

 lake. On either side it is margined with rushes and 

 large lily leaves ; an occasional willow or poplar 

 here and there growing sufficiently near the water to 

 tap its steady flowing surface with their drooping 

 tendrils. It did not take an angler of much ex- 

 perience to know at first sight that it was just such 

 a place as pike would select for a haunt, nor would 

 the tyro be wrong in this conclusion. I have had 

 the fortune to have fished in many similar places, 

 but never yet one that so swarmed with this 

 voracious fish ; in fact, they might almost have been 

 said to jostle one another, and then they were such 

 monsters, and moreover possessed of such insatiable 

 appetites, that the trouble was not to hook them, but 

 to play them and get them into your canoe. Pike 

 are not a very dainty fish when captured in our 

 home waters, doubtless because they have access 

 to sewage and other filth, but those taken from this 

 Canadian lake did not subsist on garbage, so were 

 as firm and nearly as well flavoured as trout. Thus, 

 with the aid of strong tackle, I soon secured as many 

 as I required, so turned my face homewards. 



Shortly after I landed at the bluff, and proceeded 

 to my cache, when, to my surprise, I found that 

 robbers had been there before me, and had appro- 

 priated quite the giant's share of my morning's 

 work. But that was not all, what the invaders had 

 not eaten, they had scattered and mauled to such an 

 extent that they had become quite unfit for human 

 food. There was no doubt who were the despoilers, 

 for the ground around was deeply indented with the 

 tell-tale track of bears. One of these animals I 

 could see was a monster, while the other footprints 

 were quite small, thus causing me to conclude that 

 there had been a family party a mamma and two 

 young hopefuls engaged in the larceny. 



As the sun was still a considerable height in the 



