slope beyond, began racing about as
though they had scented game and were trying to connect a broken trail.
So The Owl got out his pipe and sat down to have a smoke while his dogs
were busily engaged. Presently they centred on a certain spot, and
Oo-koo-hoo, going over, discovered the tell-tale hoar frost. Twisting
out of his snowshoes--for an Indian never has to touch his hands to
them when he puts them on or takes them off--he used one of them for a
shovel, and digging away the snow, he came upon a bear's wash. It was
quite a cave and dark inside, and as the dogs refused to enter, the
hunter crawled into the entrance and reaching in as far as he could
with his hand, felt the forms of two bears. Making sure of the exact
position of the head of one of them, he then shoved his gun in until
the muzzle was close to the ear of one of the bears and then he fired.
The explosion aroused the other bear and as it crawled out Oo-koo-hoo
killed it with his axe. The latter was a brown bear while the former
was a black.

When a bear in his den shows fight and threatens danger, the hunter may
wedge two crossed poles against the opening of the wash, leaving only
enough space for the brute to squeeze through and thus prevent it from
making a sudden rush. Then when the bear does try to come out, the
hunter, standing over the opening, kills it with the back of his axe.
Sometimes a second hole is dug in order to prod the beast with a pole
to make it leave its den. The white hunter frequently uses fire to
smoke a bear out, but not infrequently he succeeds in ruining the coat
by singeing the hair. It requires more skill, however, to find a
bear's wash than it does to kill him in his den. The Indians hunt for
bear washes in the vicinity of good fishing grounds or in a district
where berries have been plentiful.

One winter when I happened to be spending a few days at Brunswick House
an old Indian woman came to call upon the Hudson's Bay trader's wife,
and, while she was having afternoon tea, she casually remarked that
while on her way to the Post she had espied a bear wash. Digging down
into its den with one of her snowshoes, she had killed the brute with
her axe, and if the other guests would care to see her prize, it was
lying on her sled, just outside the door. What a contrast to the way
the Wild West movie actors would have done the deadly work with the aid
of all their absurd artillery! Nevertheless, that kindly spoken,
sm