BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 367 



dangling over the side, always ready to jump out, seemed 

 rather to like it it reminded him of days among the ice near 

 Spitzbergen and all of us had long since become amphibious. 



At last the stream ceased to be navigable even for our 

 shallow craft, which we beached upon certain muddy shallows, 

 among stunted bushes and dead equisetum, and our watch 

 began. All round us stretched the swamp, and above it rose 

 the densely timbered hills, while far above them again towered 

 the triple peaks of snowy Sacocle. For an hour and a half 

 no one stirred, though our fingers were numb, and we were 

 too cold to feel cold. A good Siwash (Indian) won't move a 

 muscle for hours, nor sneeze, nor cough, nor do any of the 

 hundred and one things which no one ever wants to do except 

 upon such a vigil as this. For an hour and a half the rain 

 went on, the darkness deepened, and the silence became 

 intense, broken only by the occasional splash of a ' humpy ' 

 who had run himself aground, and could not get off again into 

 deep water. 



At last Jim came to the conclusion that no bears would 

 come that night, and as a glance at our sights proved to us that 

 we should probably miss them even if they came, we signalled 

 him to push off, and in a minute the canoe was again fleeting 

 over the waters in breathless silence, the thin line of forest 

 seeming to glide by us while we stood still. An Indian in the 

 bows was looking out for ' snags ahead ' or shallows, and for 

 my part I had played this game so often before that I had 

 given up hope, and was dreaming of other things. All at once 



the canoe was violently shaken from stem to stern. ' D 



the fellow,' I muttered, ' I suppose he has run aground,' and 

 I went on dreaming. Again the canoe trembled under me, 

 and this time I remembered that this was to be the signal for 

 game ahead. At the same moment I noticed that the Siwash's 

 face was working, and his hands were drawing his Winchester 

 from its case, when my friend crept up to him, and made him 

 understand that if he fired it would hurt him more than the 

 bears, and then at last I saw them. Until then the Indian's 



