296 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



the writer left the Upper Bear Kiver on Saturday the 

 25th, and arrived at noon at the main cabin at the 

 mouth of Bear Lake. No word, however, had as yet 

 come from our man, so the only thing to do was to 

 wait. 



On Sunday afternoon, while waiting for the guide to 

 appear with his boat, Dr. Hughes and the writer took 

 a stroll down the tract for a distance of four and a 

 half miles. We then sat down about one hundred yards 

 apart as we had crossed several fresh bear trails on the 

 way, and the surroundings looked more like business 

 with bears than anything that we had yet seen. 



I might say right here that so far, in spite of our 

 hard and earnest daily work and that, too, without any 

 let-up on account of the rain, snow, hail or sleet, for 

 the weather had been extremely wet, we had not yet 

 seen a bear, either grizzly or black. The willow brush, 

 which flourishes in wanton growth on each side of the 

 running streams, formed an impenetrable screen, be- 

 hind which a prowling bear might be as safe from 

 discovery and attack as if it were at the North Pole. 



There are no roads of any kind in this country and 

 no trails, excepting those made by beaver and bear. 

 The beaver trails do not run very far, and those made 

 by the bears after leaving the sandy edge of the streams 

 are not well marked when the big woods are reached, 

 for bruin has a habit of walking on the tops of logs, 

 thus causing great gaps in his trail. 



