372 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
the Frazer, where the beautiful olalis are smothered in white 
blossom, and where the great yellow swallow-tails and plum- 
coloured Camberwell Beauties sail and sun themselves upon 
the stone slides round the lake. ‘ 
But though the black bear affords an excellent excuse for 
bolting out of town in spring-time, it canuot be said that he is 
a very sporting beast. He hasn’t got an ounce of ‘ fight’ in 
him, and stalking is of course impossible in such districts as 
those which he frequents. Even ‘still hunting’ is very nearly 
useless in such timber as exists on this coast ; so that unless 
you use hounds to hunt him with, your best chance of meeting 
Ursus americanus is to take a canoe and paddle quietly up 
untravelled streams, where fish are plentiful, or where in 
autumn the berry bushes grow thickly. In spring you may get 
a shot by watching woodland swamps where the skunk cabbage 
grows, or hill-sides when the Indian potato is ripe, but you are 
nearly as likely to have your chance if you are out early upon 
the best trail in the couniry, which runs near such feeding 
places, for the black bear appreciates a good road as much as 
a man does, and always uses one when he can. 
In Eastern America the black bear is principally hunted 
with hounds, and even here a good dog which will tree a bear 
is useful ; but my own experience of such sport has been, that 
in nine cases out of ten the hounds’ music ceased just as I had — 
done the hardest mile on record up hill and over fallen timber, _ 
and the hounds themselves turned up ten minutes later, meek — 
and dejected, their muzzles full of porcupine quills, which they — 
evidently expected me to pull out for them. . 
Most of the skins sent in to Victoria from Alaska are taken — 
by trapping (by noose, gin, or deadfall), or by hunting with 
dogs, between the time the bears leave their dens and the — 
time the snow leaves the river bottoms. It is a short season — 
and an uncertain one, but I am assured by those who have ~ 
tried it, that fora man who is a good goer upon snow-shoes, it — 
is excellent fun whilst it lasis. The dogs used for bears are of 
every breed and combination of breeds, but perhaps the best 
Se aa ee ee 
: 
a 
