NORTHERN OCEAN 345 



water insects, which in some of the lakes we crossed that day 

 were in astonishing multitudes.* ^ 



The method by which the Bears catch those insects is by 

 swimming with their mouths open, in the same manner as the 

 whales do, when feeding on the sea-spider. There was not 

 one of the Bears killed that day, which had not its stomach 

 as full of those insects (only) as ever a hog's was with grains, 

 and when cut open, the stench from them was intolerable. I 

 have, however, eaten of some killed at that early season which 

 were very good; [371] but they were found among the 

 woods, far from the places where those insects haunt, and 

 had fed on grass and other herbage. After the middle of 

 July, when the berries begin to ripen, they are excellent 

 eating, and so continue till January or February following ; 

 but late in the Spring they are, by long fasting, very poor 

 and dry eating. 



The Southern Indians kill great numbers of those Bears 

 at all seasons of the year ; but no encouragement can prevent 

 them from singeing almost every one that is in good con- 

 dition : so that the few skins they do save and bring to the 

 market, are only of those which are so poor that their flesh 

 is not worth eating.f In fact, the skinning of a Bear spoils 

 the meat thereof, as much as it would do to skin a young 



* The insects here spoken of are of two kinds ; the one is nearly black, its 

 skin hard like a beetle, and not very unlike a grasshopper, and darts through 

 the water with great ease, and with some degree of velocity. The other sort 

 is brown, has wings, and is as soft as the common cleg-fly. The latter are the 

 most numerous ; and in some of the lakes such quantities of them are forced 

 into the bays in gales of wind, and there pressed together in such multitudes, 

 that they are killed, and remain there a great nuisance ; for I have several 

 times, in my inland voyages from York Fort, found it scarcely possible to land 

 in some of those bays for the intolerable stench of those insects, which in some 

 places were lying in putrid masses to the depth of two or three feet. It is more 

 than probable, that the Bears occasionally feed on these dead insects. 



[' The insects here referred to are mainly May-flies (Ephemeridae), which are 

 washed up along the shores of the lakes in this region in incredible quantities, 

 and are eaten by the bears, as Hearne says.] 



t It is common for the Southern Indians to tame and domesticate the young 

 cubs ; and they are frequently taken so young that they cannot eat. On those 



