But at last, early in the afternoon, Thor came to a pool which he could not pass.  It was not a dozen feet in width, and it was alive with trout.  The fish had not been able to reach the lake above, and they had waited too long after the flood-season to descend into the deeper waters of the Babine and the Skeena.  They had taken refuge in this pool, which was now about to become a death-trap.

At one end the water was two feet deep; at the other end only a few inches.  After pondering over this fact for a few moments, the grizzly waded openly into the deepest part, and from the bank above Muskwa saw the shimmering trout darting into the shallower water.  Thor advanced slowly, and now, when he stood in less than eight inches of water, the panic-stricken fish one after another tried to escape back into the deeper part of the pool.

Again and again Thor’s big right paw swept up great showers of water.  The first inundation knocked Muskwa off his feet.  But with it came a two-pound trout which the cub quickly dragged out of range and began eating.  So agitated became the pool because of the mighty strokes of Thor’s paw that the trout completely lost their heads, and no sooner did they reach one end than they turned about and darted for the other.  They kept this up until the grizzly had thrown fully a dozen of their number ashore.

So absorbed was Muskwa in his fish, and Thor in his fishing, that neither had noticed a visitor.  Both saw him at about the same time, and for fully thirty seconds they stood and stared, Thor in his pool and the cub over his fish, utter amazement robbing them of the power of movement.  The visitor was another grizzly, and as coolly as though he had done the fishing himself he began eating the fish which Thor had thrown out!  A worse insult or a deadlier challenge could not have been known in the land of Beardom.  Even Muskwa sensed that fact.  He looked expectantly at Thor.  There was going to be another fight, and he licked his little chops in anticipation.

Thor came up out of the pool slowly.  On the bank he paused.  The grizzlies gazed at each other, the newcomer crunching a fish as he looked.  Neither growled.  Muskwa perceived no signs of enmity, and then to his increased astonishment Thor began eating a fish within three feet of the interloper!

Perhaps man is the finest of all God’s creations, but when it comes to his respect for old age he is no better, and sometimes not as good, as a grizzly bear; for Thor would not rob an old bear, he would not fight an old bear, and he would not drive an old bear from his own meat—­which is more than can be said of some humans.  And the visitor was an old bear, and a sick bear as well.  He stood almost as high as Thor, but he was so old that he was only half as broad across the chest, and his neck and head were grotesquely thin.  The Indians have a name for him. Kuyas Wapusk they call him—­the bear so old he is about to die.  They let him go unharmed; other bears tolerate him and let him eat their meat if he chances along; the white man kills him.