370 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
Indian, or other skins) of the great firm of C. M. Lampson 
& Co. These two firms collected in 1891 and offered for sale 
in 1892 no fewer than 29,081 bear hides, to which enormous 
total the Hudson Bay Company contributed 11,027 hides. 
Some idea of the proportion of black to other skins at 
these sales may be obtained by looking at the Hudson Bay 
Company’s lists for 1891, in which we find 11,414 black, 1,875 
brown, 253 grey, and 130 white bear skins offered for sale. 
‘When Spring is in the woods’ 
There can be little doubt, then, that there were plenty of — 
black bear in America in 1890 and 1891 ; and, in spite of the — 
immense harvest of hides which is annually gathered in, I ~ 
venture to prophesy that until Alaskan river bottoms and the — 
dense timber districts of Vancouver Island, Oregon, and Wash ~ 
ington Territory are cleared and ready for the plough, there 
will be plenty of bear left for those who care to look for them, — 
