Penfyhania, Philadelphia. 1 1 7 



a cow, he kills her in the following man- 

 ner : he bites a hole into the hide, and 

 blows with all his power into it, till the ani- 

 mal fwells exceffively and dies ; for the 

 air expands greatly between the fleih and 

 the hide.* An old Swede called Nils Gttf- 

 tave's fon 9 who was ninety-one years of 

 age, faid, that in his youth, the bears had 

 been very frequent hereabouts, but that 

 they had feldom attacked the cattle : that 

 whenever a bear was killed, its flefh was 

 prepared like pork, and that it had a very 

 good tafte. And the flefh of bears is ftill 

 prepared like ham, on the river Morris, 

 The environs of Philadelphia, and even the 

 whole province of Penfyhania in general 

 contain very few bears, they having been 

 extirpated by degrees. In Virginia they kill 

 them in feveral different ways. Their flem 

 is eaten by both rich and poor, fince it is 

 reckoned equal in goodnefs to pork. In 



H 3 fome 



hi, 



* This has all the appearance of a vulgar error: neither 

 does the fucceeding account of the American bears being car- 

 nivorous, agree with the obfervations of the raoft judicious 

 travellers, who deny the fatt. P. 



But however it might be eafible to reconcile both opi- 

 nions. For Europe has two or three kinds of bears, one fpe- 

 cies of which is carnivorous, the other lives only on vegeta- 

 bles : the large brown fpecies, with its fmall variety, are 

 reputed to be carnivorous, the black fpecies is merely phy- 

 tivorous. In cafe therefore both fpecies are found in North 

 America, it would be very eafy to account for their being both 

 carnivorous and not. F. 



