But  there  came  a  time  when  men  deemed
his  soft,  dark  skin  a  fitting  covering  for  their
heads;  and  wild  men  hunted  him  out  in  his
lonely  home.  They  trapped  him  from  Texas
to  the  Great  Bear  Lake ;  they  hunted  him  in
the  wildest  recesses  of  the  Bocky  Mountains ;
rival  companies  went  in  pursuit  of  him.  In
endeavouring  to  cover  the  heads  of  others,
hundreds  of  trappers  lost  their  own  head-
covering  ;  the  beaver  brought  many  a  white
man's  scalp  to  the  red  man's  lodge-pole;
and  many  a  red  man's  life  went  out  with  the
beaver's.  In  the  West  he  became  well-nigh
extinct,  in  the  nearer  North  he  became
scarce ;  yet  here  in  Peace  River  he  held  his
14  209


THE  WILD  NORTE  LAND.
own  against  all  comers.  Nigh  30,000  bea-
vers die  annually  along  its  shores,  and  when
spring  opens  its  waters  the  night  is  ever
broken  by  the  dull  plunge  of  countless
beavers  in  the  pools  and  eddies  of  the  great
river.
Along  the  lofty  shores  of  the  Peace  River
the  Saskootum  berry  grows  in  vast  quanti-
ties. In  August  its  fruit  is  ripe,  and  the
bears  come  forth  to  enjoy  it ;  black,  brown,
and  grizzly,  stalk  along  the  shores  and  hill-
sides browsing  on  this  luscious  berry.  On
such  food  Bruin  grows  fat  and  unwieldy;
he  becomes  "  sleek-headed "  and  "  sleeps  of
nights,"  thus  falling  an  easy  prey  to  his
hunter.
While  he  was  alive  he  loved  the  "  poire  "
berries,  and  now  when  he  is  dead  the  red
man  continues  the  connexion,  and  his  dain-
tiest morsel  is  the  bear's  fat  and  Saskootum
berries  mixed  with  powdered  moose-meat.
