3°4 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. farther, yet they thought it moft advifeable not to roufe it 
-J-v——> again for the prefent. It was, at this time, paft nine o’clock; 
and the night becoming overcaft, and threatening a change 
of weather, we thought it moft prudent to return home, 
and defer the gratification of our curiofity till morning, 
when we returned to the fpot, and found the bear dead, in 
the place to which it had been watched. It proved to be a 
female, and beyond the common fize. 
As the account of our firft hunting party will be apt to 
give the reader a wrong idea of the method in which this 
fport is ufually conducted; it may not be amifs to add a few 
more words on the fubjecft; and which I am the better able 
to do fince this laft expedition. 
When the natives come to the ground frequented by the 
bears, which they contrive to reach about fun-fet, the firft 
ftep is to look for their tracks, to examine which are the 
frefheft, and the belt fituated with a view to concealment, 
and taking aim at the beaft, either as he is palling by, or 
advancing in front, or going from them. Thele tracks are 
found in the greateft numbers, leading from the woods 
down to the lakes, and among the long fedgy grafs and 
brakes by the edge of the water. The place of ambufcade 
being determined upon, the hunters next fix in the ground 
the crutches, upon which their firelocks are made to reft, 
pointing them in the direction they mean to make their 
fliot. This done, they kneel or lie down, as the circum- 
ftances of the cover require; and, with their bear-fpears by 
their fide, wait for their game. Thefe precautions, which 
are chiefly taken in order to make fure of their mark, are, 
on feveral accounts, highly expedient. For, in the firft 
place, ammunition is fo dear at Kamtfchatka, that the price 
of a bear will not purchafe more of it than is fufficient to 
load 
