I had used the baidarka the year before, having made a trip with my hunters almost around the island of Afognak, and believed it to be an ideal boat to hunt from.  It is very speedy, easily paddled, floats low in the water, will hold much camp gear, and, when well handled, is most seaworthy.  So it was my purpose this year to again use one in skirting the shores of the deep bays, and in looking for bears, which show themselves in the early spring upon the mountain sides, or roam the beach in search of kelp.

The Kadiak bear finds no trouble in getting all the food he wants during the berry season and during the run of the various kinds of salmon, which lasts from June until October.  At this period he fattens up, and upon this fat he lives through his long winter sleep.  When he wakes in the spring he is weak and hardly able to move, so his first aim is to recover the use of his legs.  This he does by taking short walks when the weather is pleasant, returning to his den every night.  This light exercise lasts for a week or so, when he sets out to feed upon the beach kelp, which acts as a purge.  He now lives upon roots, principally of the salmon-berry bush, and later nibbles the young grass.

These carry him along until the salmon arrive, when he becomes exclusively a fish eater until the berries are ripe.  I have been told by the natives that just before he goes into his den he eats berries only, and his stomach is now so filled with fat that he really eats but little.

The time when the bears go into their winter quarters depends upon the severity of the season.  Generally it is in early November, shortly after the cold weather has set in.  Most bears sleep uninterruptedly until spring, but they are occasionally found wandering about in mid-winter.  My natives seemed to think that only those bears are restless which have found uncomfortable quarters, and that they leave their dens at this time of year solely for the purpose of finding better ones.  They generally choose for their dens caves high up on the mountain sides among the rocks and in remote places where they are not likely to be discovered.  The same winter quarters are believed to be used year after year.

The male, or bull bear, is the first to come out in the spring.  As soon as he recovers the use of his muscles he leaves his den for good and wanders aimlessly about until he comes upon the track of some female.  He now persistently follows her, and it is at this time that the rutting season of the Kadiak bear begins, the period lasting generally from the middle of April until July.

In Eagle Harbor, on Kadiak Island, a native, three years ago, during the month of January, saw a female bear which he killed near her den.  He then went into the cave and found two very small cubs whose eyes were not yet open.  This would lead to the belief that this species of bear brings forth its young about the beginning of the new year.  At birth the cubs are very small, weighing but little more than a pound and a half, and there are from one to four in a litter.  Two, however, is the usual number.  The mother, although in a state of semi-torpor, suckles these cubs in the den, and they remain with her all that year, hole up with her the following winter, and continue to follow her until the second fall, when they leave her and shift for themselves.