VI BETTER FORTUNES WITH GREAT BEARS 103 



in a day and was a very different matter, as we floated down 

 the stream in the dory and bidarki, from the tedious under- 

 taking of towing the boats up the river. 



On the way down we happened on the camp of two Aleuts, 

 who had come up the river from a neighbouring settlement to 

 hunt for meat. They had just killed a small caribou, the skin 

 and flesh of which lay by their tent. They were a quaint- 

 looking couple with their small figures, rather large heads, 





Camp of Aleut Natives hunting Caribou. 



and a peculiar likeness to the Japanese. Their language 

 was different from that of our two natives from Kodiak and 

 Afognak, who had great difficulty in making them understand. 

 But we gathered that they had seen no bear up the river, 

 and they thought our best chance to see one would be to 

 visit the next bay to the westward, where they had seen some 

 bears a short time before. On this Glyn, who was now 

 getting desperate, at once engaged them to take him round 

 to this bay in their bidarki for a few days' hunting until our 

 schooner arrived. 



