134 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



look out for bears coming down to fish, since the foothills 

 behind us were fouled by the wind blowing from us and the 

 camp. The salmon were then running in millions up the 

 stream, all making for the lake at its head, and the noise 

 which they made, as they forced their way over a shallow in 

 thousands just below our feet, was extraordinary. We had 

 not been sitting long on the hill before I caught sight of 

 something moving about half a mile away on the opposite 

 bank, and coming along the foothill towards the river. I 

 pointed the object out to Nicolai, who said, " He bear all 

 right, big one, run quick." I did not quite know why we 

 should run, nor where to make for, but as this was my first 

 experience of a bear fishing, I thought it best to trust to 

 Nicolai, and said, " You run, I will follow." It appears that 

 Nicolai was experienced enough to know, what I afterwards 

 discovered to be a fact, namely, that a bear always gets on 

 the down-wind side of a river before starting to fish. Here 

 they seem to smell the salmon by some extraordinary means, 

 and then begin dashing in and out of the river at some 

 shallow place, rarely failing to catch a fish. They bring it 

 out on to the bank and devour it, if possible selecting some 

 thick patch of bushes or grass in which to make their meal, 

 which does not occupy them long. The quickness with 

 which these huge and apparently ungainly brutes gallop into 

 the water, catch a fish, and dash out with it, was a revelation 

 to me when I afterwards saw the whole performance. In 

 this case the particular bear in question was destined never 

 to catch another salmon. By careful crawling through high 

 grass, we reached a point on our own bank exactly opposite 

 the spot where the bear appeared a minute later. The river 

 was here some 70 yards wide, and as the bear stood for a 

 moment on the far bank, I was sorely tempted to take a shot 



