The Selkirks Revisited 129 



nearly always, after circling about in the thicket, made for 

 the point. It was useless, however, for me to try to change 

 the programme, so, for lack of anything better to do, I kept 

 on toward the Gateway. The dogs swept on up-stream 

 and soon passed out of hearing, and I kept on up the slide. 



As I approached the point where the dogs had always 

 lost the trail, I saw that an old she bear and two cubs had 

 been digging there for roots that morning, it having 

 rained nearly all night and the tracks having been made 

 since it stopped. I then climbed the high snow banks and 

 listened for the dogs, and soon I could hear them, appar- 

 ently returning. On they came nearer and nearer, while 

 I, with a clear view for two hundred yards in every direc- 

 tion, stood with my gun half raised, waiting for the bear to 

 break cover and make for his favorite place at the point. 

 I was certain that this time he was making his last run. 

 But when the dogs appeared, going like mad, there was 

 not a solitary thing in front of them. They passed just 

 below me and, when they reached the bank of the stream, 

 turned suddenly to the right, ran up into the point, and 

 as suddenly ceased barking. 



I watched and waited, and they soon came out and 

 ranged about — interested, but not at all excited — ^where 

 the bear and cubs had been digging. I was now utterly 

 at sea and thoroughly determined to find out what had 

 become of that old she bear and her cubs, and why the 

 dogs should run so fast and true to this point and then lose 

 the trail. It seemed certain now that this bear was the 

 one they were after, and that they had simply followed her 

 in her various meanderings up the stream and back again. 

 I therefore whistled to them and started to crawl through 



