178 THE UPPER YUKON 



The Chief seemed to feel sure that all was 

 well, and was confident that I would get the 

 whole bunch. Therefore, we kept on crawl- 

 ing on all fours. Without any foreknowledge 

 we came to a piece of ground where a fire had 

 swept it clear both of willow brush and of 

 grass. This compelled us to lie down fiat and 

 pull ourselves along as best we could. This 

 bare place was soon crossed and we re-entered 

 the willow brush. On looking up now, we 

 were astonished to find that the mother bear 

 had led the cubs into the edge of the timber, 

 where she was standing and looking down our 

 way. Here I first became sensible of the fact 

 that the wind had changed some, and once 

 more my judgment said "shoot at one of the 

 cubs." However, the Chief was still optimis- 

 tic and satisfied that all was going well. An- 

 other fire-cleansed piece of ground confronted 

 us, and another bit of crawling had to be 

 undertaken. This having been crossed, we 

 raised ourselves behind a couple of spruce 

 trees and then spied out the land ahead of us. 



Now what do you think we saw? 



Nothing. 



The bears were gone and gone forever. 



Why had they gone? 



Wait. The Chief is climbing a tree and 



