Ingonish 
their shoulders, and we went to see what it was. 
What was our surprise to find the skins and 
flesh of two bears which they had just killed 
on the back of the mountain beneath which we 
were resting. They were young bears, and 
had been feeding for many days on the blue- 
berries that cover the mountains ; they were 
very fat and their flesh was good, and one of 
the men cut us a piece from a hind-quarter. 
This was the first fresh meat we had seen since 
leaving Baddeck, and we took it, though not 
without misgivings. It seemed too bad to 
have killed the little bears playing among the 
blueberries on the mountain-top ; and then 
one hesitates to eat the flesh of a creature that 
can be taught to walk upright, and even to 
dance. Still, there was another side to it, and 
we no doubt had reason to be thankful that 
the bears had not taken a notion to hunt us, 
while the men on the mountains were hunting 
them. To an unprejudiced mind it is as fair 
for people to eat bears as for bears to eat peo- 
ple, the only question being which can catch 
the other. 
So we took the bear-meat and also a pail of 
the blueberries the men had picked, for they 
247 
