V 



GRIZZLY AND CARIBOU HUNTING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 



IN the southern part of British Columbia an elevated and 

 comparatively level plateau about fifty miles in diameter, 

 and known locally as the Harris Creek Plateau, rises out of that 

 portion of the Gold Range between Kettle River and Okanagan 

 Lake. Its slopes are heavily timbered, but its top has been 

 burnt over so many times that it is all either open or park-like 

 countr\^ Numbers of mountain gophers inhabit this higher 

 country ; and before denning up for the winter, late in the fall, 

 the grizzlies from the surrounding region are accustomed to 

 visit the plateau in order to dig up and devour quantities of 

 these small rodents. The whole surface of the country is 

 scarred by the extensive excavations and tunnellings made by 

 bears in the course of years in digging out these unfortunate 

 animals. 



Late in August, 1901, accompanied by Dell Thomas as guide, 

 and a French-Canadian called Alphonse as cook, and with a 

 string of three saddle and four pack horses, I left Vernon, B. C, 

 for a fall grizzly-hunt on this plateau. During the entire month 

 of September, Dell and I ranged over the top of this country 

 incessantly, only to secure a momentary glimpse of a much- 

 frightened and rapidly departing bear: Grizzlies were plentiful, 

 but had been regularly hunted on the plateau for years, with 

 the result that they fed and wandered about only after dark. 

 Almost every night bears either stampeded our horses, visited 

 the deer-baits with which we furnished them, or dug up gophers 



