00-KOO-HOO PLAYS THE GAME 113 



But don't get discouraged, keep on trying hard to learn, and 

 then perhaps some day, if you live long enough, you may be- 

 come almost as wise as an ordinary Indian." 



The perfect season for hunting the black bear, and in fact all 

 other fur-bearing animals, is between the coming of the snow 

 in late autumn and the going of the snow in early spring, for 

 during that intervening season the coat is in its prime; but as 

 the bear spends much of the winter in hibernation, the hunter 

 must make the best of his two short opportunities; that is, un- 

 less he already knows where the bear will "den up," and is 

 counting on killing him in his o-wazhe — or as the white hunters 

 and traders call it "wash" — his den. His wash may consist 

 of a hollow tree or a hollow log, a cave, or any suitable shelter 

 formed by an uprooted tree. 



The finest wash I ever saw was in the woods of Quebec, where, 

 many years ago, three birch saplings had taken root in a huge, 

 hollow pine stump, and where, as time passed, the stump, 

 gradually decaying, had allowed the roots of the fast-growing 

 birches to penetrate through the cracks in the stump to the 

 ground. The roots eventually formed the rafters of a moss- 

 and rotten-wood chinked, water-tight roof to the little cavern 

 in which the old pine stump had once stood and where two 

 winters ago slept a bear. There was but a single entrance 

 between two of the now massive birch roots, and it must have 

 proved a tight squeeze when its tenant last entered. The den 

 was shown to me by a hunter who the spring before had hap- 

 pened that way. While pausing to listen to some distant 

 sound, he had heard a stranger one within ten feet of where he 

 stood. He had heard deep breathing and turning to look down 

 at the roots of the birches, he had discovered a full-grown 

 black bear lying there with its head protruding out of the den. 

 The head was turned toward him and the eyes were fixed 

 upon him with a friendly expression. Without moving a 

 single step the hunter raised his rifle and fired, instantly killing 



