April, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAIM 
153 
The nest of the wild goose 
In Deep Snow 
O NE morning Conover, after crossing 
the river in the canoe, went over a 
wide flat to one of his cabins. I 
remained in camp, fishing and watchng 
for bears. Soon I saw a grizzly about 
a mile away coming up the middle of the 
flat Conover had crossed. About the 
same time Conover started upon his re- 
turn, he and the bear traveling at right 
angles towards each other. For a while 
it looked as though they would either 
meet or discover each other. The bear 
was laboring through deep snow, which 
gave way under his weight, and Conover 
had his head down following his old foot- 
steps in the snow and picking his way to 
avoid the soft places. I could not get his 
attention without alarming the bear so I 
remained quiet and he passed about one 
hundred and fifty yards in front of the 
bear and in full view of him. Each was 
too busy with the snow to see the other. 
As soon as Conover crossed the river we 
returned to head off the bear if possible. 
But he reached the timber and disap- 
peared. I followed as fast as I could and 
had the bear gone either up or down the 
river one of us would have seen him but 
the wily old rascal went straight up the 
mountain side which lay on the other 
side of the flat. His trail led up the 
trunk of a leaning tree and into the 
heavy timber where I lost it. It was too 
steep to follow without using my hands 
to aid in climbing, and in such cases I 
want my hands employed with a rifle. 
Had I any idea the bear would take 
straight up the mountain side I probably 
could have seen him going up in front 
of me but I kept watch up and down the 
valley as I expected him to take that 
course. 
We went up the Clearwater until the 
mountains with their many glaciers were 
closed in about us and the valley was 
quite narrow. Then, as we desired as 
wide a view as possible for grizzly bear 
hunting, we decided to return and look 
for bears lower down where the season 
was farther advanced. 
The mountans at the head waters of 
the Clearwater which form the interna- 
tional boundary line between the United 
States and British Columbia are so inac- 
cessible on account of the snows and gla- 
ciers that the boundary line has never 
been accurately located and marked, nor 
have the peaks along the watershed be- 
tween the Pacific and the territory inside 
been identified. This in spite of the fact 
that several expeditions, composed of en- 
gineers from both the United States and 
Great Britain, have attempted it. The 
reason is obvious. In winter there is too 
much snow and in summer the thawing 
makes it dangerous from snow slides, gla- 
cier movements and mountain torrents. 
The canoe trip down the river was 
most delightful. My companion made me 
feel perfectly safe while the canoe was 
as steady as an ocean liner and traveled 
fast. We saw some goats feeding among 
the cliff’s, where the snow had melted off. 
They were well down on the mountain 
side but the season on goats was closed 
so we did not stop. We also passed some 
moose standing by the bank of the 
stream, and they permitted us to come 
quite near to them before shying. 
Is This a Glacier Bear? 
W E saw bear tracks along the snow 
but no bears until we came upon 
the carcass of a moose drowned 
while attempting to cross the ice during 
the winter. The carcass was on the end 
of a small island about ten yards from 
the main shore and a bear was in pos- 
session. We drifted swiftly for a hun- 
dred yards or so until within about fifty 
yards of the bear when I shot him in the 
breast, the bullet passing through and 
breaking his neck. He fell into the water 
and for a while it looked as though he 
would sink for his head went under as he 
struggled to keep his feet. With the 
tenacity of bears, however, he slowly 
dragged himself through the water and 
up the bank on the main shore. My com- 
panion held the bow of the canoe towards 
the bear as we floated past him and ad- 
vised me not to shoot again until he was 
out of the water and had reached a place 
where we could get at him. I did so. He 
would weigh about three hundred and 
fifty pounds and his prime coat of long 
silky hair is black as coal, except on 
the sides, where it is a beautiful grey. 
He also had the usual brown markings 
of a black bear about the face and his 
whole makeup was undoubtedly that of 
the ordinary black bear species, but the 
grey sides made him unique and his skin 
by far the handsomest seen in that coun- 
try in many a year. 
The coloring of the fur of this bear is 
so unlike that of other black bears that 
the interesting question has been raised 
as to whether it is a glacier bear. That 
it is unusual is attested by the fact that 
I am offered for the pelt what to me 
seems a very large price. But I neither 
buy nor sell game or any part thereof. 
My experience in bear hunting has been 
Mountain sheep crossing an ice bank 
