Mooween the Bear. IC)3 



would come to a man without discovering him. Here 

 was an opportunity. The wind at sunset had been 

 in my favor ; now there was not the faintest breath 

 stirring. 



Hiding the canoe, I sat down in the sand on a 

 little point, where dense bushes grew down to within 

 a few feet of the water's edge. Head and shoulders 

 were in plain sight above the water-grass. My inten- 

 tions were wholly peaceable, notwithstanding the riife 

 that lay across my knees. It was near the mating 

 season, when Moowcen's temper is often dangerous ; 

 and one felt much more comfortable with the chill of 

 the cold iron in his hands. 



Mooween came rapidly along the shore meanwhile, 

 evidently anxious to reach the other end of the lake. 

 In the mating season bears use the margins of lakes 

 and streams as natural highways. As he drew nearer 

 and nearer I gazed with a kind of fascination at the 

 big unconscious brute. He carried his head low, and 

 dropped his feet with a heavy splash into the shallow 

 water. 



At twenty yards he stopped as if struck, with head 

 up and one paw lifted, sniffing suspiciously. Even 

 then he did not see me, though only the open shore 

 lay between us. He did not use his eyes at all, but 

 laid his great head back on his shoulders and sniffed 

 in every direction, rocking his brown muzzle up and 



