OLD SHAG. 
149 
If signs of any proper kind were placed near 
the traps to warn the passer-by of his peril, there 
would be small reason to complain of bear-trap- 
ping, but unhappily no such signals are dis¬ 
played, and man, if he wanders in wild places, 
is in as much danger as the bears. The brook 
bed which our party of four was ascending is 
one of the best grounds for bears in all the 
Sandwich range. No wonder, then, that we 
watched and sounded anxiously for hidden 
traps. 
As we walked westward into the hollow in 
the side of Paugus, the ground rose rapidly and 
the level land on the edges of the stream soon 
gave way to steeply sloping banks. For beech, 
birch, and maple were substituted spruce, bal¬ 
sam fir, and hemlock; the rapids of the brook 
changed to falls; glimpses of sky wej*e replaced 
by occasional peeps at spruce-capped gray cliffs 
hanging high above us, and we felt as though if 
we kept on we should soon enter the black inte¬ 
rior of a vast cavern, unless some unseen avenue 
to light and air appeared. The barometer 
showed that we had climbed nearly a thousand 
feet, when suddenly there opened before us a 
view of a succession of high, steeply-sloping 
ledges, polished by rushing water and festooned 
with delicate mosses. A sheet of clear and 
sparkling water, stained a rich hemlock brown 
