188 THE PEKIBONCA AND TSCHOTAGAMA 



We fished in the rapids below them and took several 

 ouitouche or chub on our flies, but not a ouananiche 

 could be raised here at all, the Indians concluding 

 that the water was too high and thick at the time. 

 Ordinarily they claim that it is one of the best places 

 in the river pour le saumon. At the upper end of this 

 portage we camped for the night. When we got 

 there, after fishing at the foot of the falls with the 

 two guides who remained with us, we found that the 

 others, who had proceeded directly to our camping- 

 ground, had already pitched the tents, lighted the 

 camp and cook fires, and were busy preparing the 

 supper. The camp was in a thick plantation of wild 

 raspberries, and the luscious ripe fruit was in great- 

 er abundance than either of us had ever seen before, 

 and afforded a most grateful and appetizing desert. 

 Not much wonder is it that, as our guides assured us, 

 bears are exceedingly plentiful in this neighborhood. 

 Happy bears ! Here they increase and multiply, and 

 with their kind so replenish this part of the earth as 

 to make of their chase quite a matter of importance 

 to the Indian hunters. They are often found in the 

 Peribonca itself, swimming across the stream ; and 

 there are at least two well-established cases of a bear 

 having been killed in the rapids of this river by hunt- 

 ers in canoes. Etienne Simard killed one here in 1889 

 with a blow from an axe, and in 1891 another was 

 similarly slain by William Tremblay. 



Early on the second morning of our trip we struck 

 camp, and having walked on the rocks by a couple of 

 rapids, portaged around the fourth falls, or La Chute a 

 Caron, half an hour later, climbing for about a quarter 



