At last we saw the Bering Sea. Looking past the lake in the foreground, we could see a small strip of the sea, itself. It was a darker blue than the lake. To get to this point, we had hiked from 8:30 in the morning until 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. There were actually two small lakes in the foreground. The party had earlier split into three smaller groups to try to find the village. Sergeant Bryant was standing beside me. He and I had separated from the rest of the group and were following a bear trail. Only a few minutes before we first saw the sea, along this same trail the two of us had run across bear feces so fresh that it was still steaming in the crisp, cool air! Bear trails were numerous at this place, some of them going up and over a little slope above the beach.