96 THE UPPER YUKON 



ing from one bit of cover to another. It was 

 interesting when stopping for breath in the 

 hard stiff ascent to watch the bear at work. 

 When he commenced digging at a new 

 gopher hole, he would work away leisurely 

 for a few minutes, presumably until he heard 

 his prey either running or uttering its pecu- 

 liar little bark. Then the big animal would 

 get into a fever of excitement, tearing away 

 the soil, stones, and roots as if he had a per- 

 sonal animosity for these inanimate things 

 that kept him away from his luscious break- 

 fast. Where no rocks or roots interfered 

 with his digging, he would throw the soil 

 up quickly, very soon making quite a hum- 

 mock of earth. We were too far away to 

 hear the agonized bark or yelp of the fated 

 gopher when he was finally caught, but once 

 we imagined that we saw the bear crunch his 

 prey with his powerful jaws and swallow the 

 gopher almost instantly. 



By one of those peculiar vagaries which 

 frequently occur in this section of God's 

 earth, the wind suddenly changed. As soon 

 as we realized this we literally "threw dis- 

 cretion to the winds" and made a dash to get 

 within fair shooting range. 



Alas for us! Bruin had already gotten our 



