190 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



tion. It only required a cautious approach; for 

 at the first alarm, the bear was quietly feeding upon 

 the carcass of a sheep, and would have continued 

 his repast until gorged, had he not been disturbed. 



Moose are still numerous, but at this season are 

 generally far back in the mountains. An occa- 

 sional straggler, however, finds his way into the 

 valleys. Their tracks are seen everywhere along 

 the river, but it was our fortune (last year) to see 

 but one in motion. He was fording the river two 

 or three hundred yards below our camp at the 

 Forks, and but for the tumult made by our excited 

 Indian guides, he could have been bagged. As it 

 was, he escaped, a rifie ball following him at ran- 

 dom as he passed into the woods. He was about 

 the size, color and shape of a Jersey cow. 



Moose, like deer, have been hunted unmerci- 

 fully, and are by no means as plentiful as they 

 were twenty years ago, when it was an easy matter 

 to kill a dozen in a week within ten miles of our 

 present encampment. Their threatened extermi- 

 nation induced the enactment of very stringent 

 laws for their protection; and as such laws are 

 more respected here than by the " free and inde- 

 pendent electors" on our own borders, within a 

 few years moose, like salmon, will be as plenty as 

 in their palmiest days. 



Of small game, duck are most abundant. In 



