who knew how to cut and run when it was
neccssary, abound in scrimmages with the Ursidæ
of the frozen regions. Here is another yarn:
While waiting, frozen up, in Nova Zembla, on
the fifteenth of September, "as one of our men
held watch, we saw three Beares, whereof the
one lay still behind a piece of ice, the other two
came close to the ship; which wee perceiving,
made our pieces ready to shoot at them, at which
time there stood a Tub full of Beefe upon the
ice, which lay in the water to be seasoned, for
that close by the ship there was no water. One
of the Beares went into it, and put his head in
to take out a piece of the Beefe, but she fared
therwith as the Dog did with the Pudding, for
as she was snatching at the Beefe, she was shot
into the head, wherwith she fell down dead and
never stirred; the other Beare stood still, and
looked upon her fellow, and when she had stood
a good while she smelt her fellow, and perceiving
that she was dead she ranne away, but wee
tooke Halberts and other Armes with us, and
followed her, and at last she came again towards
us, and we prepared ourselves to withstand her,
wherwith she rose up upon her hinder feet,
thinking to rampe at us, but while she reared
If up, one of our men shot her into the
bellie, and with that she fell upon her fore feet
againe, and roaring as loud as she could, ranne
away" (having had a bellyful). "Then we
tooke the dead Beare and ript her bellie open;
and taking out her guts, we set her upon her
fore feet, that so she might freeze as she stood,
intending to carry her with us into Holland, if
wee might get our ship loose." They passed
the whole winter fighting with the Bears. The
last of these conflicts which we shall cite is
the following: "The sixt (April, 1595), it was
still foule weather, with a stiff North-west wind;
that night there came a Beare to our house, and
wee did the best we could to shoot at her, but
because it was moist weather and the cocke
foisty, our Piece would not give fire, wherwith
the Beare came boldly toward the house, and
came downe the stairs close to the doore, seeking
to breake into the house, but our Master
held the doore fast to, and being in great haste
and feare, could not barre it with the piece of
wood that he used thereunto; but the Beare
seeing that the doore was shut, shee went backe
againe, and within two houres after shee came
againe, and went round about and upon the top
ot the house, and made such a roaring that it
was fearefull to heare, and at last got to the
chimney, and made such worke there that we
thought she would have broken it downe, and
tore the sayle that was made fast about it in
many pieces, with a great and fearefull noise,
and but that it was night we made no resistance
against her, because we could not see her. At
last she went away and left us."

In all these instances, save the first—and
perhaps the fact of a She-Bear putting her arm
round a man's neck may be considered a playful
demonstration—who were the aggressors?
Not the Bears, but the men. "With a few
rare exceptions," observes Mr. Wood, "the
Bears are singularly harmless animals when
understood. When, however, they do make an.
attack, or are provoked to rigorous self-defence,
they are, as has been seen, very dangerous
customers." "The paws of the Bears," says the
same authority, and you may fancy what potency
there is in paws eighteen inches long, and five
out of the eighteen devoted entirely to claws—
we are speaking of the Grizzly Bear, the most
Formidable of any—"the paws of the Bears are
armed with long and sharp talons, which are
not capable of retraction, but which are most
efficient weapons of offence when urged by the
powerful muscles which give force to the Bear's
limbs. Should the adversary contrive to elude
the quick and heavy blows of the paw, the Bear
endeavours to seize the foe round the body,
and by dint of sheer pressure to overcome its
enemy." Bruin exhibits, moreover, all the skill of
a prize-fighter. "In guarding itself from the
blows that are aimed at it by its adversary, the
Bear is singularly adroit, warding off the fiercest
strokes with a dexterity that might be envied by
many a pretender to the pugilistic art." He also
knows how to "punish," or "mill" his adversary:
"With fearful ingenuity, the Bear, when engaged
with a human foe, directs its attack upon the
head of its antagonist, and if one of its powerful
strokes should take effect, has been known
to strike the entire scalp from the head at a
single blow. Mr. Lloyd, who had the great
misfortune to be struck down by a Bear, and the
singular good fortune to escape from its fangs,
says that when he "was lying on the ground"
(not a fair stand-up fight, however), "at the
mercy of the angry beast, the animal, after
biting him upon the arms and legs, deliberately
settled itself upon his head, and began to scarify
it in the most business-like manner, leaving
wounds of eight and nine inches in length."
It follows from all these stories that the rule to
be observed by a traveller in Ursine regions is
neither to assault nor insult a Bear, who, if treated
like a gentleman, will behave as such. As to
assaulting him, it is not every one who gets off
so easily as the old lady of whom Mr. Atkinson,
in his valuable work on Siberia, relates the
following anecdote: It appears that she had lost
her donkey, and, "after a long and fatiguing
search, came at last on the missing animal.
Being very much irritated with the truant for
his misconduct, she fell to scolding and beating
him with the handle of a broom, which she
happened to be carrying. Her vituperation and
castigation were, however, suddenly checked by
the discovery that the animal she was beating
so unceremoniously was not her donkey, but a
great Brown Bear. The astonishment of the
two seems to have been mutual, for the Bear
was evidently as much confused by the
unwarrantable assault as was the woman by the
sight of the animal she was belabouring; so that
after looking at each other for a few
moments, the Bear turned tail and ran away as
fast as his legs could carry him." This mistake
reminds us of one, of the gentleman who
made a long stage-coach journey by night with