132 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



of only one animal, the trail of two tails plainly showed. It 

 was evident that the ermine had seized its victim by the throat 

 and throwing it over its back, had carried it away. Many 

 other tracks of beasts and birds were printed upon the snow and 

 told in vivid detail stories of life in the winter wilderness. 



Beaver River was now frozen firmly enough to bear a man, 

 except in a few places where rapid water kept the ice thin or 

 left the stream open; and as we tramped along we examined 

 a number of traps, from two of which we took an otter and a 

 beaver. But the bear and the wolf traps remained undisturbed 

 though we saw a number of wolf tracks near at hand. Turning 

 westward we ascended a slope and came suddenly upon the 

 fresh track of a bear. It was fairly large, and was travelling 

 slowly; merely sauntering along as though looking for a den 

 in which to pass the winter. 



At once Oo-koo-hoo was all alert. Carefully re-charging his 

 gun with ball, and seeing that his knife and axe were at hand, 

 he left the toboggan behind, lest it make a noise among the 

 trees and alarm the quarry. In less than a quarter of a mile, 

 however, we came upon a sign that the bear had passed but a 

 few minutes before. The hunter paused to suggest that it would 

 better his approach if I were to follow a little farther in the 

 rear; then he noiselessly continued his pursuit. Slowly he 

 moved forward, cautiously avoiding the snapping of a twig or 

 the scraping of underbrush. After peering through the 

 shrubbery ahead or halting a moment to reexamine the track, 

 he would move on again, but with scarcely any perceptible 

 motion of the upper part of his body. When in doubt, he 

 would stand stock-still and try by sight or hearing to get news 

 of the bear. Luckily, there was no wind, so it made little differ- 

 ence which way we turned in following the trail. But just 

 then there happened a disturbing and irritating thing, for a 

 whiskey jack — Canada Jay — took to following us, and chirping 

 about it, too. Crossing a rocky patch on the hillside, the bear 



