VISIT FROM A GRIZZLY. 289 



selves in sudden fright to the shelter of their houses at 

 the approach of the trappers. Throughout all this 

 region beavers are numerous. Along the shores of the 

 Peace River (which flows into Lake Athabasca by way 

 of the Slave River at its western extremity) nearly 

 thirty thousand of these animals annually fall victims 

 to the wiles of the Indian hunters. Still their numbers 

 do not seem sensibly diminished, and during the open 

 season on the river their splashing and gambolling may 

 be heard during the night, if the traveller lies awake 

 in his camp. 



The black, the brown, and the grizzly bears here also 

 roam in great numbers, making it one of the most 

 attractive fields for the adventurous sportsman to be 

 found now-a-days on the American continent. In 

 autumn these bears are extremely fat, owing to the 

 abundance of fruit which grows all over the country. 

 The saskootum berry grows in vast profusion over the 

 hill slopes, and on these luscious dainties the bears 

 revel day by day until they become absolutely unwieldy 

 through excessive obesity. 



At the camp the trappers had an opportunity of 

 remarking the mingled ferocity and curiosity evinced 

 by a huge grizzly. The animal emerged from a gully 

 of some considerable depth, which at this season was 

 dry, but which no doubt in spring at the melting of 

 the snows poured a rushing flood into the waters of the 

 lake. Some hundred yards separated the animal from 

 the camp, the fire of which he almost immediately 



