116 OBSERVATIONS ON A SALMON RIVER 



again we encountered a bear, particularly 

 on the higher and less frequented reaches. 

 Once when dropping quietly down-stream 

 I suddenly encountered one swimming 

 across the river. My boatmen immediately 

 started in hot pursuit, but the bear won by 

 a short head, gained the shore, and shambled 

 up the mountainside before we could over- 

 take him. Upon the whole it was perhaps 

 fortunate that we failed. An entry in H. 

 A.'s journal, " His Excellency rose a bear," 

 probably refers to this incident. We often 

 caught sight of a mink sneaking quietly 

 along the bank. There were occasional 

 musk-rats, and high up the river, a large 

 beaver dam, the occupants of which I never 

 had the good fortune to set eyes on. 

 Amongst the smaller mammalia was the 

 little ground-hog, a kind of marmot, nearly 

 the size of a rabbit, whose burrows were 

 quite common. 



I must not, however, omit from the list of 

 wild animals one which constantly made its 

 presence felt during our wanderings. The 



