ies when lacing them
to their cradle boards. The incident, however, reminds me of what once
happened to an Indian woman and her eight-year-old daughter when they
were gathering moss about a mile from their camp on the shore of Great
Slave Lake. They were working in a muskeg, and the mother, observing a
clump of gnarled spruces a little way off, sent her daughter there to
see if there were any berries. Instead of fruit the child found a nice
round hole that led into a cavern beneath the roots of the trees that
stood upon the little knoll; and she called to her mother to come and
see it. On kneeling down and peering within, the mother discovered a
bear inside, and instantly turning about, hauled up her skirt and sat
down in such a way that her figure completely blocked the hole and shut
out all light. Then she despatched her child on the run for camp, to
tell Father to come immediately with his gun and shoot the bear.

To one who is not versed in woodcraft, such an act displays remarkable
bravery, but to an Indian woman it meant no such thing, it was merely
the outcome of her knowledge of bears, for she well knew that as long
as all light was blocked from the hole the bear would lie still. But
perhaps you wonder why she pulled up her skirt. To prevent it from
being soiled or torn? No, that was not the reason. Again it was her
knowledge of bears that prompted her, for she knew that if by any
strange chance the bear did move about in the dark, and if he did
happen to touch her bare figure--for Indian ladies never wear
lingerie--the bear would have been so mystified on encountering a
living thing in the dark that he would make never another move until
light solved the mystery. However, Father came with a rush, and shot
the bear, and the brute was a big one, too.

During the rest of the afternoon we found the current quite slack and
therefore, making better headway, we gained Caribou Lake about an hour
before sundown; and on finding a fair wind beneath a clear sky that
promised moonlight, it was decided to sail as far down the lake as the
breeze would favour us, and then go ashore upon some neighbouring isle
for the balance of the night. So two stout poles were secured and laid
across our two large canoes as they rested about a foot apart and
parallel to one another. Then, the poles being lashed to the thwarts,
a single "four-point" blanket was rigged horizontally to two masts, one
standing in each canoe and both