CHAPTER VIII
A BIG BEAR HIDE
The next morning while the party were cooking and eating breakfast, aswarm of mosquitoes settled upon the camp in great numbers. Not only didthey trouble the men, but the horses were greatly annoyed by them; somuch as that they stopped feeding and began to wander off, seeking thethickets of quaking aspen and willow, through which they walked in orderto brush off the insects. Besides the mosquitoes, the green headflies--bulldogs, Hugh called them--were very troublesome. Beforebreakfast was over Hugh said, "Look here, boys, we can't stay here. Theflies are too bad. We must pack up and go on and get somewhere higherup, or else to a place where the wind is blowing. Unless we do that weare likely to lose our horses. They'll run away on us."
"Yes," said Jack, "we've either got to get high up on the hills or elsego out on the prairie. Here the flies are too bad."
"Well," said Hugh, "you two boys build two or three small fires andthrow some grass or wet bark on them so as to make plenty of smoke, andthen go out and round up the horses and bring them in, so that they canstand in the smoke. Then we'll cache the wagon here in the brushsomewhere, and pack up and go on up the river and see if we can't findsome place where the flies are not so thick."
It took the boys but a short time to build a line of small fires atright angles to the lake, down which a gentle breeze was blowing, andthen, pulling some green grass and stripping the wet bark off an oldrotting cottonwood log, they soon had a line of smokes too strong forany insect. Then, going a little way down the lake, they found thehorses and drove them back to leeward of the fire, where they stopped inapparently great contentment, with only their heads visible above thesmoke.
Meanwhile Hugh had been unloading the wagon, getting out the packsaddles with their riggings and making up the packs. A portion of theprovisions he left in the wagon, but the flour and the bacon he tiedwith extra ropes and, when the boys had finished with the horses, he hadone of them climb into a tree and hang the food where it could not bereached by mice or ground squirrels. The sheep meat was lowered andfound to be perfectly good and so dried on the outside that the flieswould not trouble it. It was put in an old flour sack to go on one ofthe packs.
Long before noon matters were so far advanced that the horses weresaddled and, after three of the animals had been packed and led backagain into the smoke, the three riding horses were saddled, andpresently the little train set off up the lake over the trail followedby Jack and Joe the day before. While they were crossing the inlet, andfor the first mile or two up the trail on the other side of the upperlake, the flies were very bad, but presently, when they emerged from thegrowth of young quaking aspens they met a strong breeze blowing down thelake, which made things better.
Hugh had sent Jack ahead, telling him to follow the trail that led upthe lake to an old Indian camping ground six or seven miles above theoutlet. The trail was plain and it was impossible to lose it, and Jackplodded along fighting mosquitoes and watching the splendid mountainswhich rose on either side of the lake. As he passed over a little ridgebetween two of the many streams that ran down from the mountains, hesuddenly saw ahead of him and a little to his right, a huge brown bear,apparently looking not at him, but at something behind him on the trail.The bear stood on the hillside at a little distance above the trail, anda rise of the ground had hidden Jack from view. It was asplendid-looking animal, its coat bright and glossy, and Jack could seethe long fur ripple as the breeze struck it.
All this Jack's eye took in at a glance, and instantly he had slippedout of his saddle and stepped around his horse's head, holding the reinsover his left arm. He pitched his gun to his shoulder, aimed at the bearjust behind the foreleg and low down and fired. Then, turning, he spranginto his seat almost without touching the saddle.
At the shot the horse had stepped quickly to one side, but had notpulled back, so that Jack had no trouble in remounting, while the bearhad given a loud bawl, and had fallen to the ground, turning its head tobite the wound, and then had rolled over two or three times down thesteep hillside.
Jack whirled his horse and spurred up the hill, wishing to be above thebear rather than below it. At the same time he waved his arm to Hugh,who was now in sight, motioning to him to go up the hill. By this timethe bear had gained his feet and was coming back along the trail as hardas he could. His head hung low, his ears were laid back and his longtongue lolled from his mouth. The noise of the shot had put every one onthe alert, and it made Jack laugh a little to look back and see his twocompanions and all the pack horses scramble up the hill as hard as theycould. The bear covered forty or fifty yards, running fast and strong,and then, seeming to notice the people on the hill above it, turned andrushed toward Jack, but before it had got anywhere near him, it began togo more and more slowly and to stagger a little and presently fell,rolled over backwards two or three times and then lay still. The threemen with their pack horses came together on the hill, well above thebear, and Hugh said, "Well, son, what's the matter with you? Do you wantto stampede this outfit? Looks to me like you've got quite a bearthere."
"Why, yes, Hugh, he's about the prettiest bear I ever saw. He looked sohandsome standing there on the hillside that I couldn't help taking ashot at him. I think he has a good hide, too, but maybe I oughtn't tohave fired, for it will take us some time to skin him and while we'redoing that the flies will be getting in their work."
"That's so," said Hugh, "but now that he's dead, we've got to take hiscoat off. I'll tell you what we'd better do. You and Joe go on to thatlittle point that you see sticking out there, just this side of wherethat big creek comes down, and make camp there. Get as far out towardthe water as you can. I think maybe the breeze will keep the flies down,and we can stop there with comfort. I'll stay here and start in to skinthe bear, and after you've made camp you come back with a pack horse andwe'll take the hide into camp."
"Hold on, Hugh," said Jack. "That's a kind of a low-down trick for me tokill this bear, and then leave you here to skin it and fight flies. Letme stop here with you now and take the skin off and let Joe go on andmake camp. If the flies are not bad he can do it alone just about aswell as we could together, and if they are, he'll have to make a smokefor the stock and unpack, and when you and I get back with this hide, itwon't take long to put up the tent."
"Well," said Hugh, "maybe that is better. It'll shorten up the work toskin now."
Hugh explained again to Joe where it was that he wanted to camp, and Joewent on with the pack horses. Hugh and Jack sat down by the bear andbegan to skin it.
"Now, I want you to take notice, son," said Hugh. "Here it is July andthis bear hasn't begun to shed out a bit yet nor even to get sunburned,and yet maybe he's been out of his den now for two months or more. Heisn't fat; he's lost considerable flesh since he's come out, but hiscoat is just as good as it was the day he left his den."
"I've always heard, Hugh," said Jack, "that bears, when they come out oftheir dens, are just as fat as when they go into them."
"That's what everybody says," said Hugh, "and I reckon it's true. Inever happened to kill a bear right fresh from its den, but I've killedthem in May and found them very fat. I've a kind of an idea that theylose their fat slowly. Most people say that when they come out and startwandering about looking for food they keep going all the time and getpoor right away. I don't quite believe that is so. I'm pretty sure theydon't get much to eat at first, and I've a notion that if they losttheir fat right away some of them would starve to death before food gotplenty. When we get this fellow's skin off, I'm going to look into hisstomach and see what he's had to eat in the last twenty-four hours."
"That'll be good," said Jack. "I'd like to see, too."
For some time the skinning went on in silence and the hide began to dropfrom both sides of the great carcass.
"I tell you, Hugh," said Jack, "this skin beats any one of those that wegot last summer down in North Park. I think it's fully as big as thebiggest one that we got then, and it seems to me that the hair is twicea
s long and twice as silky."
"Yes," said Hugh, "it's an awful good hide. I don't know when I've seenone that was much better. You must remember that those we killed lastsummer were not in good order; the winter coat had only just begun togrow. This hide will make a fine robe if we can get anybody to tan it."
"How do you mean, Hugh?" said Jack. "Won't any woman tan this hide if wepay her for it?"
"Why, no, son, you know a great deal better than that. Haven't I toldyou a good many times that lots of Blackfeet women won't touch a bearhide on any terms? You know the Blackfeet, anyhow, are afraid of bearsand think they're powerful medicine. A good many of them won't call abear by his name. They call him Sticky Mouth. Most of them won't sit ona bear robe. There are some medicine men or priests that can wear a kindof cap made of a strip of bearskin on the head, but it's hard to find awoman that has the power to tan a bear hide. They are afraid of thespirit of the bear; afraid that it will bring them bad luck."
"Now, Hugh," said Jack, "I don't remember that you ever told me aboutthat before. I know that the Indians think that a bear is mighty smartand has great power, and I know that the Eastern Indians when theykilled a bear used to smoke to the head and make the head presents oftobacco, but I didn't know that they wouldn't touch a bear hide."
"Well," said Hugh, "you know it now. There's only now and then one ofthese Piegan women that would dare to dress a bear hide. We may findsuch a woman in camp when we go back, but the chances are against it.However, I reckon we'll manage somehow to get the hide tanned."
While they were talking thus, both workers were plying the knifevigorously and in a little while the hide was free all around and thecarcass was slipped off it. Then Hugh, cutting into the bear's stomach,turned out its contents on the ground. It was almost empty, containingnothing but two or three wads of grass and a single ground squirrel,which had been swallowed whole.
"You see," said Hugh, "this fellow hasn't had much to eat, and you see,too, that he's got quite a little fat left on his carcass. I reckonmaybe he's been down along the shore of the lake to see if he couldn'tpick up a fish or two that had drifted ashore, and not having foundanything there, he was going back up onto the mountain to try to digout a gopher, or a woodchuck, or one of those little rock rabbits."
They now folded the bear hide, and while Jack held his horse, Hugh triedto tie on the hide behind the saddle, but the horse would have none ofit. He struggled and pulled back, and it was only by blinding him with acoat--an operation which took some time and involved some troublebecause both men were covered with bear's grease, the scent of whichfrightened the horse--that they could get him blindfolded and the hidefirmly lashed in position.
"Now, Hugh," said Jack, "I'm not proposing to get onto that horse onthis side hill. The chances are that he'd buck and very likely drop meoff on a rock. I'll walk and lead him until he's a little more used tohis load."
"Well," said Hugh, "that's pretty sensible. You go ahead and lead himand I'll follow, and if he pulls away from you, why I'll drive him alongthe trail."
Jack took the blind from the horse's head and taking up his gun wentdown toward the trail. The horse, however, was afraid of his load andbucked pretty savagely. They had, however, taken the precaution to cinchthe saddle tightly, and the lashing held, so that, at length, the badlyfrightened horse followed more or less uneasily along the trail, Hughriding behind him and having some trouble in controlling his own animal,into whose nostrils the scent of the bear hide was constantly blown.Their progress toward camp was slow, but an hour after they started theyreached it and found the horses feeding near it not greatly troubled bythe flies, for a strong wind was now blowing down the lake.
During the afternoon, while Hugh was getting the camp in shape andcooking supper, the two boys stretched the bear hide and went over itwith a knife, scraping from it all possible grease. After supper andjust before sundown, Jack, casting at the mouth of the turbulentmountain stream which here poured itself into the lake, caught a dozensplendid trout, some of which gave him fine sport.
After nightfall, the breeze which swept down from the mountains was socool that the mosquitoes ceased to be troublesome, and they sat aboutthe camp fire enjoying its grateful warmth. Presently Joe broke out andsaid, "Where are we going, White Bull? I never came into the mountainsso far as this, and I don't know this country."
"Well," said Hugh, "I ain't much surprised at that, for the Piegansdon't go much into the mountains. They are afraid of the bears and ofthe bad ghosts that live there."
"Yes," said Joe, "that is true. The Piegans like the open prairie, wherethere is always plenty of light and where you can see a long way. Theonly people here that go much into the mountains are the Kootenays andthe Stonies. Sometimes the Bloods go in a little way to hunt or trapbeaver, but not far. Plenty of men in my tribe would stop right here;they would not go any further. Up above here, on this lake, I see thatthe mountains come close together, and there is only just room enoughfor the water to get through. We don't know what there is beyond thereand we do not want to go to meet the dangers that may be there."
"Why," said Jack, "you don't feel that way, do you, Joe? You've beenpretty nearly raised among white people. You are not afraid of themountains, are you?"
"No," replied Joe, "I'm not much afraid of them. I'm a little afraid,but I don't know what there is up behind these rocks that we see aheadof us. Only to-day we saw this awful big bear that you killed. Maybe upin the mountains there are more bears and bigger ones and worse. I wouldlike to see what there is up there, but then I know that it may be verydangerous to go there."
"Well," said Hugh, with a smile, "we haven't talked much about it, but Ithought we'd just go up here along the lake and get to the head of itand then follow up the river that comes into it and keep on climbinguntil we got to the head of that river. Somewhere, not very far away, itmust begin, and must come falling down from these high peaks, becausenot very far beyond here there are other rivers running the other way,so that we are here somewhere near the backbone of this country.
"Well," said Joe, "I'd like to see it. In old times you know the Pieganswere not afraid of the mountains as they are now. In old times they usedto cross over these mountains and go beyond, into the country of theSnakes and the Kootenays and the River people,[A] and used to takehorses from them and drive them back through the mountains; also, theyused to go through the mountains and make long journeys to war to thesouthwest, and if they found little parties of white men who weretrapping or trading, they would try and take their horses and a scalpor two, if they could. I have heard old people tell about how theirfathers used to go on these war journeys and used to fight everyone thatthey met, white people or Indians."
[A] The Kalespelms, more commonly called Flathead Indians, who dwell on and near Lake Pend d'Oreille.
"Yes," said Hugh, "that's so. In the early days before my time theBlackfeet were thought to be a terrible people."
"Yes, indeed," said Jack, "I've read some of the old books about theearly trappers and they are always talking about the danger from theBlackfeet, and how they would lie in wait for the trappers, as they wentalong the streams gathering their fur in the morning, and kill them, orhow they would try to run off their horses. Sometimes they would havebig battles with them. The trappers, I think, were mostly at peace withthe Snakes and perhaps with other tribes, and often camped with them,and when the Blackfeet were troublesome, if the trappers had Indianallies, they often used to follow up the Blackfeet, and punish thempretty severely for the raids they had made on them."
"Well," said Hugh, "as I was saying, we haven't talked much about thisand none of us here know much about the country ahead of us. I came uponce, trapping, as far as the head of the lake. I got a few beaver, andonce I killed an elk just above the head of the lake, but beyond there Ihave not been. Still, I guess we'll be able to find our way. The valleyis narrow and the mountains high on either side, and we cannot very wellget out of that trough, but, on the other hand, it may be pretty badgoin
g there. The whole valley may be a swamp or a succession of littlelakes and it's possible that we can't find a way to the head of it atall. The only way to learn about it is to try. Anyhow, it's new country.I never heard of anybody going up on the river above the lake, exceptone man, old man Ellis. He told me once about going up there and saidthat he got across to the other side of the range, but he said it waspretty hard traveling for the animals, and that in one place they had tolower their horses by ropes over some bad places."
"Do you mean to say, Hugh, that no white men have been up here, exceptthat one?"
"He's the only one I ever heard about," replied Hugh. "And I never feltquite sure that he got as far as he thought he did. At all events itwon't be a bad trip to make, unless the flies are too awful bothersome,and by the way, son, to-morrow morning before we start, we'd better getout that strip of mosquito bar that you put in. If the mosquitoes arebad we'll need it before very long."
"I'll do that, Hugh," said Jack. "But what do you suppose we'll find upthere at the head of the river?"
"It's pretty hard to say," Hugh answered. "I expect we'll find lots ofrocks and stone and ice, probably lots of game, and we'll surely seesome mighty pretty scenery; high peaks and big snow fields. There sureought to be lots of sheep and goats up there, some elk, maybe a moose ortwo, and of course some bears, but that doesn't mean that we're going toget all this game. It only means maybe that we'll see some of it;perhaps only some signs of it. Just how far we can take the horses, ofcourse, I don't know. We'll have to try and do the best we can. Likelyenough, we'll know a lot more about it three or four days from now."
"Well," said Jack, "I'll be mighty glad to get up there and see whatthere is."
"Yes," agreed Joe, "that will be good. I shall have plenty of things totell the people when I get back to the camp after this trip."