CHAPTER VI 



BETTER FORTUNES WITH THE GREAT BEARS 



Exactly how the mistake of which we had thus been made 

 victims arose, I never knew, but it is certain that our 

 informant must have visited this lake late in the season, 

 when no doubt it was possible for him to see and shoot as 

 many bears as he said he had done, but nothing will induce 

 me to believe that there were many bears round that 

 neighbourhood in the spring of 1903. The general outlook 

 of affairs was not bright at that time, and the feelings of our 

 party at having been so utterly fooled, were freely expressed 

 but are best not stated in print. We were stranded there 

 without hopes of getting away for some time, as on landing 

 we had sent the schooner back to Kodiak with orders to 

 return in about a month, by which time we hoped to have 

 all the bears we wanted, and then to sail farther to the west 

 in the anticipation of getting a walrus or two on the Bering 

 Sea coast. Here let me add a warning to all sportsmen who 

 may visit Alaska in the future, lest they should be ever led 

 astray so far as to visit the shores of any lake in search of 

 bears during the spring. Look for them rather on the sea- 

 shore, and along the slopes of the hillsides where the young 

 grass is beginning to grow in sheltered spots. 



The most annoying part of the whole business was that 



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