3 o6 A V O Y A G E T O 



'779- mot. This done, they kneel or lie clown, as the circum- 

 ^epten^e^ fiances of the cover require ; and, with their bear-fpears by 

 their fide, wait for their game. Thefe precautions, which 

 are chiefly taken, in order to make fure of their mark, are, 

 on feveral accounts, highly expedient. For, in the firft 

 place, ammunition is fo dear at Kamtfchatka, that the price 

 of a bear will not purchafe more of it than is fumcient to 

 load a mufket four or five times; and, what is more mate- 

 rial, if the bear be not rendered incapable of purfuit by the 

 firft fhot, the confequences are often fatal. He immediately 

 makes toward the place from whence the noife and fmoke 

 ifTue, and attacks his adverfaries with great fury. It is im- 

 poffible for them to reload, as the animal is feldom at more 

 than twelve or fifteen yards diftance, when he is fired at : fo 

 that, if he does not fall, they immediately put themfelves 

 in a poflure to receive him upon their fpears ; and their 

 fafety greatly depends on their giving him a mortal flab, as 

 he firft comes upon them. If he parries the thruft (which, 

 by the extraordinary ftrength and agility of their paws, they 

 are often enabled to do), and thereby breaks in upon his 

 adverfaries, the conflict becomes very unequal, and it is 

 well if the life of one of the party alone fuflice to pay the 

 forfeit. 



There arc two feafons of the year when this diverfion, or 

 occupation, as it may be rather called, is more particularly 

 dangerous: in the fpring, when the bears firft come forth, 

 after having fubfifled, as is univerfally afTcrted here, on 

 fucking their paws through the winter; and efpccially if 

 the froft happen to be fevere, and the ice not to be broken 

 up in the lake at that time, by which means they are de- 

 prived of their ordinary and expected food. Under thefe 

 drcumflanccs, they foon become exceedingly famiflicd, and 

 4 fierce 



