s. Mr Ross and Mustagan were in front, while the
boys and some Indians were not far behind. All at once Mustagan, who
had been on the alert, called Mr Ross's attention to an object which at
first was to him more imaginary than real. Sharp as were his eyes, he
was asked to look upon what to him was at present invisible and
intangible. The party had all now stopped, and each one was
endeavouring to see what already seemed so real to Mustagan.

"O, I see it!" shouted Alec and Sam together. "See, as the sun's rays
fall upon it, it shines like a small bit of a rainbow."

"Yes," said Frank, "I see it, like a thin column of steam lit up by the
morning sun."

Then it was visible to all. For as the sun arose a little higher, and
its full rays fell on it, at the right angle to the spot where our party
now stood, there it was, clear and distinct, a tiny spiral column of
steam rising up in the clear cold air from a great snowy expanse. There
was not a sign of a tree or of a den. Then Mustagan explained that
there was a deep ravine full of the snow, and at the bottom of it some
bears had made their winter's nest in the fall. Whether they had much
of a den or not he did not know. They would find that out when they dug
them out. Anyway, here they were under many feet of snow. The
breathing caused the snow to melt around them and above them, until it
formed an icy crystal roof. Then, as they went on breathing and
breathing, by and by in a little opening it found its way through the
crust and through the fine snow, until it made a small chimney all the
way up to the top; and then he added, "There it comes out, as you see it
now."

Carefully they all walked up to the spot. The opening was not more than
an inch in diameter. It was hardy perceptible. The little bit of steam
froze into the tiniest particles of ice, which were invisible except
when the sun's bright rays shone on them. It was a great curiosity to
the boys. "How many feet below us are the bears?" asked Sam, in tones
so subdued that everybody laughed. But the fact that only a lot of
light snow separated him from he knew not how many savage bears had a
tendency to make him a little nervous, and hence his whispered question.
Glancing over the landscape, and taking notice of the hills in the
distance and the amount of country that the storm had swept over,
Mustagan and Mr Ross came to the conclusion that between twenty and
thirty feet of snow were between th