WATCHING FOR BRUIN 219 



Weather, time and other circumstances permitting, 

 our scientist, W. E. Hughes, purposed to climb the 

 nearest one in search of mountain goats and bears. 

 We left our boat a mile and a half above our first camp 

 on the Upper Bear River, and next day made a " hike " 

 through a trail unique in the quality that, of all sorts 

 of bad ground to travel over, this trail offered three 

 distinctly bad types. 



The tirst was through the so-called brush, which, out 

 here, means the everlasting willow bushes. They are 

 not so high as the alders, but are thicker and harder to 

 get through, slapping the water or dew upon your neck, 

 face and body with every step you make. 



Next came five miles of open bog-land called here 

 a "park," where the foot goes down generally into 

 water over your ankles, and at times over your knees. 

 This is interspersed with hummocks, where you have 

 to jump from one to another of them, and if you miss 

 your footing, you're up almost to your middle in oozy 

 mud. 



After this delectable stretch comes a couple of miles 

 of burnt land, on which the logs, lying in every direc- 

 tion, impede your progress, while, if the morning be 

 wet and your footwear slippery, then you'll find the 

 logs also slippery, the bushes, snags and roots tantaliz- 

 ing, and you'll surely slide and fall many times before 

 you're over the burnt land. 



We took four and a half hours to cover the eight 



