Bear Traits 



cass lay. Our plan was to let the bear get at 

 the bait, and then stalk it as we had stalked 

 its predecessor. From the spot where the 

 bait lay it would have been impossible, on 

 account of the bushes, to see anything ap- 

 proaching. 



The wind blew strongly up that hillside 

 all day long ; so strongly that we lay in com- 

 parative comfort in a place where the week 

 before the black flies had made life a torment. 

 At about four o'clock we saw a large bear 

 coming up the hill, several hundred yards 

 below the carcass. It came slowly but stead- 

 ily, and without stopping, until it reached the 

 exact spot where I had circled around the 

 bait a spot easily distinguishable by reason 

 of an opening in the bushes. Then it stopped, 

 and its nose went down to the ground. 



"He smell your track," hissed a wrathful 

 voice in my ear. The bear turned, and 

 started slowly down ; so slowly that, hoping it 

 might stop or turn back, I refrained from 

 taking the long shot which Nicholas was urg- 

 ing upon me. In a few yards, when it was 

 well out of sight of the bait, though still in 

 full view of us, its pace quickened to a trot, 

 and then in a second it was plunging down 



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