We had just finished supper when we saw another bear in a better position, and I proceeded to make the stalk, going part of the way in the baidarka, for the great meadow was intersected by a stream from which small lagoons made off in all directions.  The wind was very baffling, and although we successfully reached a clump of brush in the middle of the marsh, the bear for some time continued to graze in an unapproachable spot.  We had almost given up hope of getting a shot, when he turned and fed slowly some fifty yards in a new direction, which was up-wind.  This was our chance.  Quickly regaining the baidarka, we paddled as noiselessly and rapidly as possible up the main stream of the marsh to a small lagoon, which now at high tide had sufficient water to float us.

There was great charm in stalking game in this manner, although I was, in a sense, but a passenger in my natives’ hands.  But it was fascinating to watch their keenness and skill as they guided the frail craft round the sharp turns, the noiseless use of the paddles, the light in their eye as they constantly stood up in the canoe to keep a hidden gaze upon the game ahead, watching its every movement as well as the local eddies and currents in the light evening breeze.  All was so in keeping with the sombre leaden clouds overhead, and the grizzled sides of the ungainly brute, blending in with the background of weather-beaten tree trunks and the dull gray rocks.  And so, silently and swiftly, stopping many times when the bear’s head was up, we approached nearer and nearer, until my head man whispered, Boudit (enough), and I knew that I was to have a fair shot.  Stealthily raising my head above the bank I saw the bear feeding, only seventy-five yards away.  Creeping cautiously out of the boat I lay flat upon my stomach, rifle cocked and ready, waiting for a good shot.  Soon it came.  The bear heard some sound in the forest, and raised his head.  Now was my chance, and the next second he dropped without a sound; he struggled to rise, but I could see he was anchored with a broken shoulder.  My men were unable to restrain themselves any longer, and as I shot for the second time, their rifles cracked just after mine.  We now rushed up to close quarters.  The bear, shot through the lungs, was breathing heavily and rapidly choking.

Suddenly I heard a yap, and then, out over the marsh, came Stereke at full speed.  I had left him with my friend, as we thought we might have to do some delicate stalking across the open.  He had sighted the bear, and watched our approach all a-tremble, and at the report of my rifle there was no holding him.  Over the ground he came in great bounds, and arrived just in time to give the bear a couple of shakes before he breathed his last.  We carried the entire carcass to the baidarka, and even the cartridge shells were taken away, to avoid tainting the place with an unusual scent.