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 Sacoclé. 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 asthis. 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 tous 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 
_ gameahead. At the same moment I noticed that the Siwash’s 
2 _ 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 ‘Hem. Until then the Indian’s 
