ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 255 



Neil grabbed one of the treacherous branches to pull 

 the boat in by, but instead of pulling us in, the rude 

 branch pulled him out head over heels into the icy 

 glacial water. He climbed into the stern of the boat 

 and shook himself like a dog, and asked what should be 

 done now. I said, " We'll get right back again into the 

 stream and pull for all we're worth, so as to keep you 

 from getting chilled through." 



On passing up we came to two sandy beaches, one on 

 each side of the river, and on both sides there were 

 fresh tracks of a grizzly bear made but a few hours 

 before. We poled up to the next beach above, and 

 there we landed. Neil undressed, and with the loan of 

 a jumper and a pair of overalls, a shirt and undershirt 

 and a pair of trousers from my kit, he succeeded in get- 

 ting a complete suit of dry clothes. 



It was now getting dark, and it seemed to me a good 

 idea to run down again to the place where the fresh 

 bear tracks were. As there was a little cove at the 

 upper end of one of the sandy beaches and the wind at 

 that point being in our favor, we could run the boat 

 into the cove and lie there snug and comfortable for 

 the night and watch for bruin at the same time. 



We, therefore, went down, pushed the boat into the 

 cove, cut off some willow brush to give us an unob- 

 scured view of the beaches, pulled the bow hard and 

 fast upon the sand, ate some cold boiled rice which we 

 had brought with us in a kettle, and then fixed our- 



