266 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



visitors surmised it must contain the long-sought heat. 

 So the most courageous of them grabbed it and started 

 to make off, followed by the cubs, who cried, " My mother, 

 my mother, they have taken the bag of heat !' This was 

 the marauders' first intimation that the prize they had 

 was, indeed, the one sought. 



The bear joined in the pursuit, and forthwith began a 

 chase for the possession of the bag. First the man took 

 the bag, but the bear gained on him ; then the jack-fish, 

 but the bear still gained; then the loche-fish was given 

 the bag, and the bear immediately began falling behind. 

 As they went through the alleged gate of heaven the bag 

 burst, and the heat spread all over the world. In no time 

 the snow and ice of three years' accumulation had melted, 

 and the waters began to rise. They saw they would all 

 be drowned, and so set to work the bear included to 

 erect a high lodge, into the top of which they all went, 

 except some of the fish that plunged into the waters and 

 were never heard of afterwards. 



After remaining in this lodge a long time, all the birds 

 were sent off to find the earth, but only the duck returned, 

 with dirt in his bill. Finally the water began to subside, 

 and then their fears of no earth changed to dread lest 

 there be no water. So they sent out a big man to make 

 rivers and lakes, which he accomplished by digging a long 

 trench for the rivers and round holes for the lakes, the 

 earth taken out and thrown aside being the mountains. 



I heard a variation of this, which said that the sur- 

 vivors of the flood floated on a raft for a long time with- 

 out being able to find a resting-place. One day a rat 

 appeared on the surface, and the Indians asked him to 

 dive and see if he could find bottom, and the obliging rat 

 did so, and brought up a mouthful of clay, which forth- 

 with began to grow until it finally became the world. 



