THE BEAR. Be he 21 
once “refertissimam,” full of them.* Camden, too, 
writing of Perthshire, observes: “This Athole is 
a country fruitful enough, having woody vallies, 
where once the Caledonian forest (dreadful for its 
dark intricate windings and for its dens of Bears, and 
its huge wild thick-maned bulls) extended itself far 
and near in these parts.”t 
After the occupation of Britain by the Romans, 
Caledonian Bears seem to have been perfectly well 
known in Rome. We learn from Martial that they 
were used for the purpose of tormenting male- 
factors, of which we have an instance in the fate 
of Laureolus: { 
Nuda Caledonio sic pectora prebnit urso, 
Non falsa pendens in cruce, Laureolus. 
Which may be Englished : 
Thus Laureolus, on no ideal cross suspended, 
Presents his nude body to the Caledonian bear. 
Camden, quoting Plutarch, assures us “ that they 
transported Bears from Britain to Rome, where they 
held them in great admiration.”§ How these Bears 
were captured, and in what way they were trans- 
ported to the coast and shipped on board the Roman 
* “ De origine, moribus, &c., Scotorum,” 1578, 
+ “ Britannia,’ ed. Gibson, vol. ii. p. 293; ed. Phil. Holland, ii. 
p: 40. See also “ Old Statist. Acc. Scotl.,” vol. xii. p. 449 (1794). 
{ Martial, ‘De Spect.,” vii. 3, 4. 
§ Camden, ed. Holland, ii. p. 31. Gough, in his edition (vol. iii. 
p- 367), says that neither he nor Pennant could discover the passage 
referred to, nor have we been more successful. The passage from 
Martial, however, is thus commented on in the Delphin edition:— 
“ Caledonia, regio Britannic, ubi sylve densissime wnde sevi wisi 
Romam mittebantur.” 
Ce2 
