wait in some suitable place, arranging so as to be certain of his prey.
The Indians I have mentioned may be ranked among the more fortunate hunters. " A great many others," they told me, " have not had the same success, and have come back from the bear-hunt with a broken leg or arm, muti lated, wounded and bruised all over. Many have lost their lives."
Bears are exceedingly dangerous when they have young ones or when they feel themselves wounded. Then they will attack or defend themselves against the aggressor, and they are very ferocious. Aside from these cases, when a bear meets a man and the man lets him alone, he will not be the first to begin an attack; he goes his way and lets the stranger pass in peace. Experto crede Roberto; I have tried it frequently myself. It is true, to be sure, that the fear o f man is characteristic o f all animals. It is a prerogative which the Creator bestowed upon him at the beginning.
The Ursus gulo, carcajou or wolverine is ordinarily found in the Arctic regions as far as the seventy-fifth degree. He appears in the various sections of the Rocky Mountains, including that in which I was this winter [1858-591. He may be called the Torment of the mountain traveler, and especially of the beaver-hunter, who considers the wolverine his greatest enemy and has always to keep on his guard against him. The reason is this. When the carcajou discovers a cache of provisions or skins, he devours the first with pleasure and destroys the second. He also destroys the steel traps that are set around here and there to take other animals; and I am assured that when he cannot manage this, he carries them off and hides them in the branches or hollow trunk of a tree. His strength is pro
digious. Although not large, and with very short legs, he will carry or drag a large deer a long distance. But cunning as he is, man is his superior, and the carcajou falls into his snares like all the others.