A LUXURIANT UNDERGROWTH. 311 



makes a good deal of noise. Right up to the 

 27th of August we had ahnost continuous fine 

 weather, and the sun was often quite oppres- 

 sively hot. Mosquitoes and midges were a 

 little troublesome in the afternoons and 

 evenings, but not excessively so. 



The walking I often found most fatiguing, 

 as, wherever the forest came right down to the 

 bank of the river, there was always a luxuriant 

 undergrowth of wild rose and other bushes, 

 beneath which lay a network of fallen trees, 

 through and over which one could only make 

 one's way very slowly and painfully. Amongst 

 this undergrowth I found both black and red 

 currant bushes growing, but nowhere in great 

 profusion. The berries on the latter were very 

 fine. Here and there, too, I found wild 

 raspberries. 



Bear tracks — nearly all, I think, those of black 

 bears — were plentiful all along the Macmillan, 

 but I never had the luck to see one on the open 

 bars, and amongst the thick undergrowth there 

 was no chance of doing so. 



As we approached the forks of the MacmiUan 



