244 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



bush from one slide to another over their own well-worn trails. 

 During our visit heavy snow still remained on mountain crest, 

 and at the foot of the slides it lay in huge masses mixed with 

 trees and stones carried down from above. The bears lie up 

 during the warm hours of the day among the thick spruces close 

 to running water, and in the evening retire to near the snow- 

 line in the higher regions. But they are restless creatures, 

 especially in the love season when both males and females roam 

 all over the country in search of a mate, the mothers hiding 

 their cubs when they go courting. The quest of food 

 also keeps them constantly on the move, grass, roots, tubers, 

 skunk cabbage, game fresh or high, and, when all else fails, 

 grophers, which they dig out of their holes, often from a depth 

 of more than 5 feet. Bears in a late spring when snow still lies 

 as a rule do not go far away from their dens, but feed close 

 round and very difficult it is to find out where they do feed. 

 This may be because the soles of their feet are then very tender 

 from long disuse too tender for forays far from home. In the 

 autumn berries of all kinds and they are innumerable in 

 Canada are placed on the menu, but the white clusters of the 

 red willow are the favourites. Berries are eaten as medicine, 

 potatoes and roots to produce the large store of fat with which 

 they enter their winter dens. 



During the first few days we saw any number of big bears, 

 brown, cinnamon, and silver-tip, and I readily agreed with my 

 hunter that if this valley was not the best in British Columbia 

 it would be bad to beat. Here, apparently, was a bear hunter's 

 paradise and we had visions of returning to the railway with a 

 splended collection of the most beautiful skins ; but, alas ! it soon 

 became evident that seeing bears and bagging bears is not by 

 any means the same thing. At first they showed themselves 

 freely, but soon became aware of our presence and scared by 

 the smell of the fire and chopping and other noises in camp. 

 They then took to feeding all night and hid as much as possible 

 among the willows and spruces by day, probably laughing at us 

 as we sat perched in most uncomfortable positions in trees over- 

 looking feeding-places, shivering with cold and the prey of 

 clouds of mosquitoes. Although nearly a month in that valley 

 we only got two bears, a brown and a small cinnamon, the 

 former as he ran past me over a bare rock chased by a dog, and 



