"No," said Fannin, "I have not. You see in this country we don't have a chance to see very far. It's all covered with timber, and it's only once in a while, in such a situation as we got to the other day when we were goat hunting, that we have an opportunity to see any considerable distance. So, really, all that I know about the feeding of bears is what I have discovered from cutting them open and seeing the contents of their stomachs. I told you the other day about how the bears sometimes came in and carried off hogs for us."
"Yes," said Jack, "I remember that, of course. Hugh," he went on, "where are bears most plenty back in our country?"
"Well," said Hugh, "there are a good many bears along the Missouri River, and in the low outlying ranges like the Moccasin, Judith, Snowy, and Belt mountains, but I think the places where they are the plentiest is along the foot of the Big Horn Range. You take it in the early summer, there's a terrible lot of bears to be found there."
"And which are the most plentiful, the black or the grizzly?" asked Jack.
"Why," said Hugh, "there's no comparison. The grizzlies outnumber the blacks about three to one, I should say. Black bears in that country are mighty scarce."
"And in this country," said Fannin, "you can say the same of the grizzly."
[CHAPTER XV]
THE WORK THAT GLACIERS DO
The next morning the sea was as calm and placid as if its surface had never been ruffled by a gale, and the canoe pushed along at a good rate of speed. During the early part of the afternoon Jack saw on a long, low rock, close to which the canoe would pass, a number of shore birds, running here and there, busily feeding at the edge of the water, but did not recognize them, and asked Fannin what they were. After a close look, Fannin replied: "Those here are turnstones; those others seem to be black oyster catchers."