Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the Lake Superior Ojibway

CHAPTER XXV

MIGRATION OF THE BEARS. 405 CHAPTER XXV. MIGRATIONS OF THE BEARS-THE PASSE A L'OURS-THE YEAR 1811-THE DOGS OF ~UGUESH-THE BEAR KNIFE-CUNNING TRICKS-THE RENVERSI - HOLLOW TREES- BEARS' TONGUES- A NOVEL ART- BIRCHBARK BITING-THE SUN-DIA.L-THE WHITE COLOUR--MENABOJU-DISCOVERY OF MAPLE SUGAR-NATIVE DOCTORS-INDIAN CHEERFULNESS -NO CARE FOR TilE MORROW-A REALLY LAZY CHIEF-THE SQUATTERS -THE MONTAGNAIS-PERFECT S.\"VAGES-LAND TENURE AMONG INDIANS -INCANTATIONS AND SPELLS-LOVE Ol' HOME-SAULT STE. MARIE-THE NORTH STAR STEA~rER-FAREWELL TO LAKE SUPERIOR. THE bears, it appears, perform certain wanderings, regulated by the season, from north to south, or from the forest-clad districts to the more open parts. In spring and summer, so I was told, they migrate to the south, where a richer harvest of fruit and grain awaits them. In autumn, however, they return to the great forests, in order to stow themselves away for the winter, in what the English call the pineries, the French, "les bois forts." In winter they would positively starve on the prairies and more open plains. In these excursions, the bears, although rarely or never found in large bodies, have certain places on the rivers, where they are in the habit of crossing. A very celebrated ford of this description is said to be the "passe a l'ours" on the St. Croix, a confluent of 406 THE "PASSE A L'OURS." the Upper Mississippi. It is at no great distance from the mouth of the little Yellow River on the Mississippi, and is well known to the traders and hunters in these parts. One of them gave me the following description of the hunting and locality there: " The northern shore is thickly clothed with wood, for a spur of the great northern forests runs down to that point. The south shore, on the contrary, is a fine open prairie. On this bears arrive almost daily in the _month of October, to swim through the water, and then creep into the forest thickets. In order not to disturb them in this, all the travellers and traders quit the south shore of the St. Croix during this period, and give similar directions to their people, although the trail along the south shore is far more convenient than that on the other bushy and swampy side. The bears would immediately notice the footsteps of men and become shy. The hunters who await the bears here, and give them chase, naturally also keep on the northern shore, where they lie in the little forest bayous in their canoes. The bears usually arrive in the night. The night is fine and calm, the moon shines brightly, the water is as clear as a mirror. Suddenly the hunters hear a trampling in the reeds, on the shore, and the dry grass. Here's Bruin I Away the animal splashes into the water, and paddles along, snorting violently; only its black head is visible on the moon-illumined waters. The hunters aim at this, and usually give the bear a mortal wound. They hurry up in their canoes and pull the beast alongside with iron hooks. If it is dead, these prevent it sinking, while, if still living, they drag the bear to the north shore, lest the body might float down and the scent of the blood cause an alarm among the fol- THE DOGS OF MAGUESH. 407 lowing bears. This bear migration at Passe al'Ours is said to last three to four weeks." As I said, there may be other bear passages besides the one I have mentioned, and which I merely chose as an instance. Several years have become remarkable for enormous bear migrations. Thus, I heard much at Riviere au Desert of the year 1811, as a perfectly extraordinary bear year. It is natural enough that, if the bears are wandering, they must appear in large numbers on this river at the eastern point of Lake Superior, where two large peninsulas join to form an isthmus. In the said year, however, they migrated the whole summer through from the northward across the river to what is called the " upper peninsula of Michigan.'' Above six thousand bears are said to have been killed on the island ancl banks of this moderately long river. Many traders bought five hundred or six hundred skins in the course of a year, and several even...