C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

A Gril:l:/y BearI4Ia narrow shelf of land some 20 feet above the water, dragging the carcase of thegrizzly. There was no other place for a camp. On that narrow and rather muddyterrace an orgy of butchering, cooking and eating now took place.We began supper with bear steaks. Lazarus andJimmy were nearly off theirheads with excitement and when Lazarus had eaten two or three steaks he rubbedhimself with a happy smile."By God," he said, "I've had a sore stomach all day, now I feel real good."As we sat there, close to the reeking corpse, consuming fried bear steaks andrice and treacle, we tried to regard this revolting scene as a matter of course.Sometimes life catches you up and whirls you into the strangest experience fromwhich there is no escape and you just bow your head and wait until it is over.It was nearly midnight but still broad daylight when we settled into oursleeping bags; there were beautiful red streaks in the north-west sky; the corpseof the grizzly, only partially dismembered, lay some ten yards from our tent. As Ilook back on that incident now I feel shame rather than pride over the shootingof the bear. Mter all, he had only come down to drink from his own river in hisown country; we were not only strangers but I rather think that on this occasionwe were also butchers. I never have forgotten the strange beauty of that creamcolouredform, with curved back, standing at the water's edge as we came swiftlyand quietly round the bend in the evening light.I cannot now remember for how long we travelled in the land of midnight sun,but I know that one midnight at Aklavik I photographed the sun when it was just aball of fire resting on the far end of a little lake behind the convent. Then, whiletravelling on the Rat, the Bell, the Porcupine and the Yukon, I cannot recall anyhours of real darkness. At first, the continuous daylight had been very exhaustingbut we had now become used to it. The almost horizontal rays of sunlight now litup the scene of the grizzly's murder, investing every object with uncanny beauty.We were up early next morning, for on this day our guides were to start ontheir 90-mile walk back to Fort McPherson, across muskeg country. We had coldrice, treacle and boiled bear for breakfast, the guides enjoying that meal to thefull although they had been feasting and cooking for most of the night. To us thebear's meat tasted like string; it certainly had the texture of string. The bear'sskin lay beside us and all the meat had been neatly cut into joints and portions.Mter breakfast, Lazarus returned to the hut at La Pierre House to take a pair ofboots for himself and to hang a large joint of bear's meat in a bag on an outsiderafter, as payment to Jackson Brothers.