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