116 THE BLACK BEAR

the rope was run through a block, and that there was
every likelihood that the bear would tear down every
tent in camp, and make hay generally as soon as he found
he was caught—perhaps go off with the rope in the end.

However, Sunday came and the stage was set for the
show. In such circumstances the bear should never have
shown up at all, but he was a most accommodating
animal; he not only came but calmly placed his head
through the noose. Nine times out of ten such a lot of
men would have made a bungle of it and pulled at the
wrong time, but this was their lucky day, and they caught
Mr. Bruin fair and square round the neck, Then the fun
commenced. No sooner did the bear feel the pull of the
rope than he made a violent rush to get away, and the
four men who were doing the pulling went flying in all
directions, everyone letting go his hold. Now the rope
was so long that the loose end had been coiled up behind
the tent over a root, round which it had become twisted.
There was, however, enough of it left free to allow the
bear to get a bit of a run, so that when he came to the
end of the slack he was brought up with such a jerk that
he went high up into the air and came down with a thud
on his back. His neck was broken !

As soon as the salmon begin to run up the small streams
in the autumn, bear, both black and grizzly, come to
feed on them if they are within reasonable distance of
any such stream. At such times they are comparatively
easy to kill if you go about it in the proper manner, but
many shots are lost through the wind not being favourable.
Often they feed on salmon during the daytime, but the
best time to get them is on a moonlight night. It is a
form of sport that never appealed to me very much, though
at one time I did a lot of it. In the first place, by the
time the pelts are worth having there are so many dead
salmon lying about in all stages of decomposition that
the stench is horrible ; and in the second place, if you have
enough clothes on to keep you warm, you get deadly
sleepy, while, in addition, when a bear does show up, the
light is seldom good enough to make a sure shot. The most