174 SINGING-BIEDS AND FLOWERS, ETC. 



I had followed one of the large Yesso bears for 

 some distance through the open forest. This was easily 

 done by the marks the heavy beast left amongst the 

 leaves and grass, as well as from the big leaves of a 

 bulbous plant which were left cut off from the stem 

 on which he had been feeding. This particular lilium 

 might well in the east of Yesso be called the "bear 

 lily," from Bruin's great partiality to it. At last 

 I came to a hill which was matted over with fallen 

 trees, creepers, and very thick underwood. Here I 

 confidently expected to find the animal, and proceeded 

 as cautiously as possible. I had crawled under old 

 moss-covered prostrate trees, twisted through fallen 

 branches, parted the matted creepers aside, and was 

 in the act of passing between two great trunks of 

 timber, when, to my surprise, I saw — not a bear — but 

 the most perfect gem of a primula ^ I ever beheld ; of a 

 delicate pink colour, clustering, on a stem eighteen 

 inches high, with leaves of a fresh yellow-green tint, 

 this lovely flower quite arrested my progress. Amongst 

 the tangled damp moss, the matted creepers, and in- 

 numerable other wild lanky-looking plants, were a few 

 square feet of uncovered mossy turf, and on this spot 

 the single delicate-looking flower grew, as if planted by 

 some fairy hand, and afterwards nourished and tended 

 ^ Primula Japonica, as I afterwards learnt. 



