WATCHING FOR BRUIN 225 



They seem to delight in dark, dense woods where 

 the ground is covered with deep moss and the side hills 

 littered with rotting and storm-struck timber. As you 

 brush the " devil's club " aside you realize that he is 

 " armed to the teeth " with thorns upon thorns. You 

 may have your eye scratched out, your ear torn or 

 your nose lacerated. If you are a church-member in 

 good standing, you certainly will not swear aloud, 

 but you will breathe and think " cuss " words with 

 every step you make among them. 



The persecution of the insects became so unbearable 

 at last that at ten o'clock we pulled the friendly piece 

 of sail-cloth over our head. As it was not large 

 enough to cover head, shoulders and body, together 

 with the hands, one of which must surely rest upon the 

 trusty rifle, we fought the pests from our hands and 

 wrists by fanning the air at all times. And this, per- 

 haps, may account for the only incident that happened 

 during the night to relieve the long-continued strain of 

 watching and of listening. 



At half-past ten we heard a couple of branches 

 break directly upon our right in the woods, where the 

 big fellow had stood up, and, brave fellow as he was, 

 had made his mark away up on that old spruce tree. 



What could have made the branches break so 

 stealthily, so silently, with no other following sounds 

 to give us a chance to interpret the cause thereof ? 

 Naturally, this made us sit up and think. And our 



