THE STORY OF AN OUTING 



The bears do not wait for this, but wade in and deftly 

 throw the fish upon the bank with their paws and then 

 cache them; one bear will have many caches; they feed 

 and fatten upon these fish until hibernation, for about 

 this time the first frost kills all the berries. Bears go 

 into hibernation, not so much according to the depth of 

 the snow or the particular time of year, but when they 

 have accumulated fat enough to carry them through the 

 winter, and they seem to know when their maximum 

 condition is reached. 



I made elaborate plans to be a party to the bear- 

 salmon meeting only to find that "the best-laid schemes 

 gang aft a-gley." The onrushing railroad construction 

 through Yellowhead Pass had inspired the British 

 Columbia government to send in a party of surveyors 

 to survey a territory possessing valuable coal-deposits. 

 They came to the lake by pack-train, bringing axes, 

 whip-saws, jack-planes, shaves, etc., and began felling 

 trees and whip-sawing lumber with which to build 

 bateaux to carry a party of surveyors, implements, pro- 

 visions, etc., down the river for a three-months' labor. 

 The noise of their labors, the fishing and shooting of 

 their camp foragers, sent all bears out of the country at 

 once. I still had hopes of the sockeye country above the 

 lake, but lo! another danger appeared a party of pre- 

 emptors, three men with their wives, one having three 

 girls, aged four, eight, and twelve years respectively, six 

 dogs, quantities of traps, fourteen horses, one thousand 

 pounds of flour, sugar and bacon to correspond, hay- 

 ing tools, etc. They immediately asked to be shown 

 "where them hay-medders is." They had come there 

 to pre-empt land. They expected to cut hay to winter 



