SKETCHES FROM STERSDAL. se9 | 
immediate district; and the hero of the adventure 
would be excessively astonished if he noticed that any 
one attached peculiar importance to it, and would 
perhaps deliberate the next time, and so, in all pro- 
bability, not succeed so easily. 
One more incident. Some litle time ago a bear 
used to prowl about a particular part. He was called 
the “‘ horse bear,” because he had despatched so many 
horses in his time. His fame had extended far and 
wide, and he had often been hunted. He had had, more- 
over, to submit to a regular “Klapjagt,’* something 
quite uncommon in these parts, but had always con- 
trived, though often wounded, to escape. 
In one of these encounters he got severely wounded 
in one of the hind legs, causing the foot ever since to 
be quite awry, so that he could easily be recognized 
wherever he went. Wild and savage to the extreme 
from all the persecution to which he had had to submit, 
he would attack people whenever he saw them, even if 
they had not “insulted” him. Some time elapsed 
when the slaughter of various cows, and the breaking 
down of cowsheds, gave convincing proofs that he was 
again in the neighbourhood, and great was the panic 
caused by the advent of this terrible ‘“ horse bear.” 
Therefore, one of the most renowned bear-shooters in 
the valley, who had often had an encounter with these 
* When the whole country is called out to beat the woods. 
