This animal is capable of some degree of instruction. There are few who have not seen him stand on his hind legs, or with these dance in rude and awkward measure, to tunes either sung or played on an instrument. But, even in thus tutoring him, it is necessary, in order to succeed, that the animal should be taken young, and be held in constraint ever after. The bear which has passed his youth, is not to be tamed, nor even held in awe, and shows himself, if not actively intrepid, at least fearless of danger.

The wild bear turns not from his path, nor offers to shun the sight of man; and yet, it is said, by a certain whistle he may be surprised, and so far charmed as to stop, and stand upon his hind feet. This is the time to shoot, or by one method or other to destroy him; for, when only wounded in an attack, he darts with fury at his foe, and, clasping him with his fore paws, is sure to stifle or strangle him, unless immediate assistance be given.

The bear enjoys the senses of seeing, hearing, and feeling, in great perfection; and yet, compared with the size of his body, his eye is very small; his ears are also short; his skin is coarse; and his hair very thick. His smell is exquisite; more so, perhaps, than that of any other animal, the internal surface of his nose being very extensive, and excellently calculated to receive the impression of odors. He strikes with his paws as a man strikes with his fists; but in whatever particulars he may bear a rude kind of resemblance to the human species, he is only rendered the more deformed by them; nor do they give him the smallest superiority over other animals.

In no part of the world, perhaps, are bears more numerous than at Kamstchatka, and no where are they so gentle. They rove about the plains in large droves, yet they never disturb the women and girls, who gather roots and herbs, or turf for fuel, in the very midst of them; nay, they will even eat out of their hands. Their mildness, however, does not preserve them from being persecuted by mankind. For this ingratitude man has, indeed, some excuse in the great utility of the spoils of the bear. The Kamstchadale would find it much more difficult to subsist, did not the bear supply him with many necessary articles. Beds, coverlets, caps, gloves, shoesoles, and collars for sledge dogs, are made of the skin; the fat is savory and nutritious as food, and when melted is used as oil; the flesh is highly esteemed; the shoulder blades are converted into sickles for cutting grass; the intestines, when prepared, are worn by the women as masks, to protect the face from the sun, and are also converted into excellent panes for windows; and the heads and haunches are hung on trees, around the dwellings, as ornaments, or as trophies. To the bear the Kamstchadale is likewise indebted for his scanty knowledge of physic and surgery, which he acquires by noticing what herbs the animal applies to his wounds, or eats when he is laboring under disease; and to the bear, too, he owes all his ideas of

dancing; his bear dance, as he calls it, being nothing more than a close imitation of his shaggy quadruped instructors.

The brown bear is upwards of four feet long. He inhabits Europe and the temperate parts of Asia.

THIS animal inhabits the northern part of America, and is, perhaps, the most formidable of all bears in magnitude and ferocity. He averages twice the bulk of the black bear, to which, however, he bears some resemblance in his slightly elevated forehead, and narrow, flattened, elongated muzzle. His canine teeth are of great size and power. The feet are enormously large; the breadth of the fore foot exceeding nine inches, and the length of the hind foot, exclusive of the talons, being eleven inches and three quarters, and its breadth seven inches. The talons sometimes measure more than six inches. He is, accordingly, admirably adapted for digging up the ground, but is unable to climb trees, in which latter respect he differs wholly from every other species. The color of his hair varies to almost an indefinite extent, between all the intermediate shades of a light gray and a black brown; the latter tinge, however, being that which predominates. It is always in some degree grizzled, by intermixture of grayish hairs, only the brown hairs being tipped with gray. The hair itself is, in general, longer, finer, and more exuberant than that of the black bear.

The neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains is one of the principal haunts of this animal. There, amidst wooded plains, and tangled copses of bough and underwood, he reigns as much the monarch, as the lion is of the sandy wastes of Africa. Even the bison cannot withstand his attack. Such is his muscular strength, that he will drag the ponderous carcass of the animal to a convenient spot, where he digs a pit for its reception. The Indians

regard him with the utmost terror. His extreme tenacity of life renders him still more dangerous; for he can endure repeated wounds which would be instantaneously mortal to other beasts, and, in that state, can rapidly pursue his enemy. So that the hunter who fails to shoot him through the brain, is placed in a most perilous situation.

One evening the men in the hindmost of one of Lewis and Clark's canoes perceived one of these bears lying in the open ground about three hundred paces from the river; and six of them, who were all good hunters, went to attack him. Concealing themselves by a small eminence, they were able to approach within forty paces unperceived; four of the hunters now fired, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of which passed directly through the lungs. The bear sprang up and ran furiously with open mouth upon them; two of the hunters, who had reserved their fire, gave him two additional wounds, and one breaking his shoulder-blade, somewhat retarded his motions. Before they could again load their guns, he came so close on them, that they were obliged to run towards the river, and before they had gained it the bear had almost overtaken them. Two men jumped into the canoe; the other four separated, and concealing themselves among the willows, fired as fast as they could load their pieces. Several times the bear was struck, but each shot seemed only to direct his fury towards the hunter; at last, he pursued them so closely that they threw aside their guns and pouches, and jumped from a perpendicular bank, twenty feet high, into the river. The bear sprang after them, and was very near the hindmost man, when one of the hunters on the shore shot him through the head and finally killed him. When they dragged him on shore, they found that eight balls had passed through his body in different directions.

On another occasion, the same enterprising travellers met with the largest bear of this species they had ever seen; when they fired he did not attempt to attack, but fled with a tremendous roar, and such was his tenacity of life, that although five balls had passed through the lungs, and five other wounds were inflicted, he swam more than half across the river to a sand bar, and survived more than twenty minutes.

Mr John Dougherty, a very experienced and respectable hunter, who accompanied Major Long's party during their expedition to the Rocky Mountains, several times very narrowly escaped from the grizzly bear. Once while hunting with another person on one of the upper tributaries to the Missouri, he heard the report of his companion's rifle, and when he looked round, beheld him at a short distance endeavoring to escape from one of these bears, which he had wounded as it was coming towards him. Dougherty, forgetful of every thing but the preservation of his friend, hastened to call off the attention of the bear, and arrived in rifle-shot distance just in time to effect his generous purpose. He discharged his ball at the animal, and was obliged in his turn to fly; his friend, relieved from immediate danger, prepared for another attack by charging his rifle, with which he

ceived a

stance

again wounded the bear, and saved Mr D. from further peril. Neither rehy injury from this encounter, in which the bear was at length killed. Mr Dougherty, the hunter before mentioned, relates the following inOf the great muscular strength of the grizzly bear :- Having killed a bison, and left the carcass for the purpose of procuring assistance to skin and cut it up, he was very much surprised on his return to find that it had been dragged off, whole, to a considerable distance, by a grizzly bear, and had been placed in a pit, which the animal had dug with his claws for its reception.

THIS animal is found in considerable numbers, in the northern districts of America. In size and form he approaches nearest to the brown bear; but his color is a uniform shining jet black, except on the muzzle, where it is fawn colored; on the lips and sides of the mouth it is almost gray. The hair, except on the muzzle, is long and straight, and is less shaggy than in most other species. The forehead has a slight elevation, and the muzzle is elongated, and somewhat flattened above. The young ones, however, are first of a bright ash color, which gradually changes into a deep brown, and ends by becoming a deep black.

The American black bear lives a solitary life in forests and uncultivated deserts, and subsists on fruits, and on the young shoots and roots of vegetables. Of honey he is exceedingly fond, and, as he is a most expert climber, he scales the loftiest trees in search of it. Fish, too, he delights in, and is often found in quest of them on the borders of lakes and on the sea-shore.

When these resources fail, he will attack small quadrupeds, and even animals of some magnitude. As, indeed, is usual in such cases, the love of flesh in him grows with the use of it.

As the fur is of some value, the Indians are assiduous in the chase of the creature which produces it. "About the end of December, from the abundance of fruits they find in Louisiana and the neighboring countries, the bears become so fat and lazy that they can scarcely run. At this time they are hunted by the American Indians. The nature of the chase is generally this: the bear chiefly adopts for his retreat the hollow trunk of an old cypress tree, which he climbs, and then descends into the cavity from above. The hunter, whose business it is to watch him into his retreat, climbs a neighboring tree, and seats himself opposite to the hole. In one hand he holds his gun, and in the other a torch, which he darts into the cavity. Frantic with rage and terror, the bear makes a spring from his station; but the hunter seizes the instant of his appearance, and shoots him.

"The pursuit of these animals is a matter of the first importance to some of the Indian tribes, and is never undertaken without much ceremony. A principal warrior gives a general invitation to all the hunters. This is followed by a strict fast of eight days, in which they totally abstain from food; but during which the day is passed in continual song. This is done to invoke the spirits of the woods to direct the hunters to the places where there are abundance of bears. They even cut the flesh in divers parts of their bodies, to render the spirits more propitious. They also address themselves to the spirits of the beasts slain in preceding chases, and implore these to direct them in their dreams to an abundance of game. The chief of the hunt now gives a great feast, at which no one dares to appear without first bathing. At this entertainment, contrary to their usual custom, they eat with great moderation. The master of the feast touches nothing; but is employed in relating to the guests ancient tales of feats in former chases; and fresh invocations to the spirits of the deceased bears conclude the whole. "They then sally forth, equipped as if for war, and painted black; and they proceed on their way in a direct line, not allowing rivers, marshes, or any other impediment, to stop their course, and driving before them all the beasts they find. When they arrive at the hunting ground, they surround as large a space as they can; and then contract their circle, searching at the same time every hollow tree, and every place capable of being the retreat of a bear; and they continue the same practice till the chase is expired.

"As soon as a bear is killed, a hunter puts into his mouth a lighted pipe of tobacco, and blowing into it, fills the throat with the smoke, conjuring the spirit of the animal not to resent what they are about to do to its body, or to render their future chases unsuccessful. As the beast makes no reply, they cut out the string of the tongue, and throw it into the fire. If it crackle and shrivel up (which it is almost sure to do,) they accept this as