156 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



that leaned over the water close in my rear. With all 

 my efforts I could not get them free, so sending the 

 lad aloft, I waited patiently for him to cast them off. 

 The place where I stood was hummocky, such lumps 

 as you come across in the bogs of Ireland when snipe- 

 shooting, only a great deal larger. With care and pre- 

 caution the hummocks could he traversed without 

 wetting a foot, but hurry would certainly get you be- 

 tween them, when over the boot-tops would be the 

 consequence. I had stood for several minutes for the 

 youngster to get the line loose, when across the stream, 

 but a short distance off, I heard an animal grunt ; the 

 spot whence the sound issued was a large clump of 

 whortle-berries, where some fallen timber lay. Not 

 being quite certain that my ears had not deceived me, 

 I waited, when the noise was repeated. By this time 

 my line was free, and my juvenile companion was 

 descending, when I asked him to listen to the noise, 

 for I felt convinced it emanated from no other than a 

 bear feeding, enjoying his favourite bonne bouche, the 

 blue berries. Young America listened; Bruin gave 

 another grunt of evident satisfaction, when the former 

 exclaiming "bear! " slid down the tree with such 

 agility as would have put in shade the majority of 

 monkeys. As soon as he reached the ground, off he 

 started down stream, but the funniest part of all was 

 that my guide, in the precipitancy of his movements, 

 must have tripped over the hummocks at least half-a- 

 dozen times in a dozen strides. When we had got 

 thirty or forty yards off, for 1 followed, though 

 scarcely as rapidly, my amour propre asserted itself, 

 and I halted ; not so my companion ; soon he dis- 

 appeared through the labyrinth of shrubs, and I re- 



