176 A BLACK BEAR HUNT 



direct line is taken across country, the scene growing wilder and 

 wilder as we advance. Through tangled and obdurate masses of 

 timber, up the sides of thickly wooded declivities, across fire-scarred 

 stretches, after several hours of tedious travelling we emerge on 

 the bare top of a dome-shaped rock-bestrewn height commanding 

 every portion of an extensive open plateau. Caribou are sighted 

 in the distance, and a lordly moose bull observed coming down 

 to a beaver pond to drink ; but the season for hunting this game 

 has not yet opened. Here are patches purple with berries. There 

 could not be a more likely place for bears. We were, therefore, 

 hardly surprised when a careful inspection with field-glasses showed 

 a moving black spot, probably at the distance of a mile. It is easy 

 to lessen the intervening distance at first, but as we draw nearer 

 caution is required. The chance comes when the bear lowers his 

 head, snapping this side and that at the fruit which hangs like 

 miniature clusters of grapes. It is easy to take cover when he 

 moves and stares about him with his shifty piglike eyes. At last 

 an approach is made within eighty yards. A shot is fired and 

 goes home. Then another, aimed too high, sputters on a rock 

 immediately in front of the now well-frightened creature. He 

 takes it for an enemy in front, and comes loping heavily along 

 right towards us. Should we pass within reach, he would doubtless 

 aim a heavy blow with his fore-paw which it would be highly unde- 

 sirable to receive. He is such a ball of fat from excessive feeding 

 that he wheezes and whines as he comes on. Now is the chance ! 

 There is a white spot on the breast a most excellent bull's-eye. A 

 bullet stops his career, yet he has marvellous vitality, for it requires 

 another in the head to finish him. He is a fine specimen, and 

 measures nearly six feet from the stump of the tail to the nose 

 extremity. One huge canine tooth is broken off short, no doubt 

 by the habit of biting at trees in the spring, to which the animals 

 are unaccountably addicted. 1 



Noel speedily divested the game of his black coat with almost 

 as little difficulty as he would remove his own jacket. He then 

 cut up the choicest parts of the meat into small pieces, folded the 

 bearskin neatly with the pieces within, and afterwards tied the 

 whole with bands of withrod (viburnum), and with the same bands 

 secured it across his shoulders as a pack, leaving the arms free 

 for action, according to Indian custom. 



1 The male bear in the rutting season has the habit of rising on his 

 hind legs, biting and sticking his claws into the bark of the balsam fir, 

 like a cat against a table leg, at the same time snarling, growling, and foam- 

 ing at the mouth. He seems to take delight in placing his mark high enough 

 up on the trunk to distance all competitors. 



