The  men  were  therefore  marched  some  five  to  six  miles


STARTING   A   FOURTH    BEAR.  391

to  the  eastward,  to  a  deep  and  thickly-wooded  glen,  called
Djup-dalen,  or  the  deep  dale,  where  it  was  suppose  a  bear
harboured ;  and  after  forming  line  in  the  usual  manner,  we
beat  the  country  before  us.
The  Skall  had  hardly  commenced,  when  it  was  re-
ported to  me  that  the  people  had  fallen  in  with  the  tracks
of  a  bear.  As,  however,  we  were  then  in  nearly  the  same
line  of  country  as  that  traversed  on  the  preceding  day,
it  was  at  first  imagined  they  might  be  those  of  the  beasts
we  then  chased.  But  this  was  not  the  &ct ;  for  on
examination  they  proved  to  be  those  of  another  and  larger
bear,  which  Elg  and  I,  when  on  our  way  homewards  the
preceding  night,  had,  though  unknown  to  us,  roused  from
his  slumbers.  It  appeared  by  the  marks  of  our  Skidor,  that
we  had  passed  within  three  or  four  hundred  paces  of  his  bed,
which  he  had  no  doubt  deserted  in  consequence  of  hearing
the  dogs  giving  tongue,  as  we  remembered  them  to  have
done,  at  some  birds  they  had  flushed  from  the  ground.
Directions  having  been  given  to  the  people,  as  to  the
course  they  were  to  take  whilst  searching  for  a  fresh  bear,
Elg  and  I  forthwith  went  in  pursuit  of  the  beast  whose
tracks  we  had  just  fallen  in  with.
