knew the trail was used by bears, for 
they had followed a fresh track up it 
earlier in the day, so any minute they 
might expect to be disturbed by an un- 
welcome visitor. They strained their 
ears against the roaring of the wind to 
catch any approaching sounds, and 
vainly tried to pierce the inky black- 
ness. Wet and numb with cold they 
crouched behind their poor protection 
through the long hours. At last, in the 
darkest hour before dawn, during a lull 
of the wind, they caught the sound of 
something coming down the trail. They 
gripped their rifles, and stared towards 
the shuffling, brushing sound, which 
gradually became more and more dis- 
tinct. Suddenly it ceased, and they 
could hear some beast snuffing at the 
air near them. So tense was the situa- 
tion that they risked striking one of 
their few matches. Simultaneously 
with its flare, an alarmed “whoof” and 
the sound of some heavy body dashing 
down hill through the bushes, pro- 
claimed a bear to be their disturber. 
The next hour seemed a century, until 
‘sufficient light broke through the dark- 
ness to enable them to resume their 
journey, when some way down the trail 
they came across a quite fresh imprint 
in some soft ground of a gigantic bear | 
paw, showing where “Old Silver-tip”’ | 
had returned to the trail after his hur- 
ried dash from the flare of the match | 
Cougar are more numerous on Van- 
couver Island than they are on the 
Coast of the mainland, and even there 
the Government reward of $25 is sensi- 
bly thinning them out. They are thiev- 
ing, cowardly brutes,as we found to our 
cost, for some chickens had been hung 
up outside of the door of our house- 
boat preparatory to a chicken dinner. 
But a cougar intervened, so the dinner 
of the succulent fowls did not come off, 
for the thieving beast walked the plank 
from the bank of the lagoon and car- 
ried off the chickens during the night. 
He was a wiley brute and evaded all 
our attempts to trap or shoot him, but 
like all criminals, he fell a victim to his 
own folly in attempting to rob the local 
trapper’s snares, at which nefarious 
undertaking he was surprised by the 
trapper, and promptly shot. 
Deer were fairly plentiful on the 
mountains at the back of the lagoon, 
and occasionally would come down onto 
the flats to feed. Such a visit one early 
morning caused us much amusement, 
for our logger got out his rifle and pro- 
ceeded to open magazine fire from the 
window at the buck which was stand- 
ing on the edge of the forest within 
‘easy shot of the house-boat. The buck 
evidently heard something, but did not 
appear alarmed, though he stopped 
grazing and kept looking about to see | 
what was up. Wher the logger had 
emptied his magazine without result, 
Page 231, In writing to Advertisers’ mention Forest and Stream. 





“Lee 

The outlaw of wild life 
—get lim! 
A crow hunter is a conservationist. 
The crow is a destroyer of bird life and 
an enemy of the farmer. Crows eat the 
eggs of game, song and insectivorous 
birds, and kill their young. These feath- 
ered outlaws destroy growing crops 
and cost the farmers of this country 
millions of dollars in damage every year. 
The crow is a pest and a nuisance — 
hunt him down! 
The International Crow-Shoot 
To conserve the game 
supply for sportsmen, the 
du Pont Company is offer- 
ing $2,500 in merchandise 
prizes for team and indi- 
vidual scores in an Inter- 
national Crow-Shoot— 
open to sportsmen in the 
United States and Canada. 
Send for these two book- 
lets, ““The Indictment of 
the Crow,’’ and ‘‘Crow 
Shooting as a Sport,” giv- 
ing full information on the 
Crow. Write today so you 
can enter the big shoot at 
the start. 
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO., INC. 
Sporting Powder Division 
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 

It will identify you. 








