48 NOCTURNAL DANCES. 



drew ; but this is not their way, they often gambol 

 and frolic about in their own peculiar manner, and 

 trample under foot far more than they consume. 

 Deeply vexed at seeing his field thus injured, the 

 farmer can only look on and complain of the inva- 

 sion ; for, unless he can summon to his aid stout 

 men and faithful dogs, he may not venture to in- 

 trude upon the dancers. 



It also happens, and not unfrequently, that when 

 a wide extent of country has been effectually cleared, 

 when scarcely a tree remains to tell of the vast 

 forests that once shadowed the land, and when the 

 numerous population of wild animals, bears and 

 foxes, racoons and monkeys, with their various 

 tribes and families, have hastened far from the 

 log-built cabins into the depths of untrodden forests, 

 that suddenly a company of bears have reappeared, 

 and haunted for some time every valley and moun- 

 tain-ridge, making it dangerous to pass, and sally- 

 ing forth at night into the vicinity of farm-houses, 

 where, however, their depredations are almost ex- 

 clusively confined to the pig-sty, or rather to the 

 hog-yard. 



According to Clarke and Lewis, many powerful 

 and ferocious species of the bear are found in 

 the Arctic regions of America. But most pro- 

 bably these are varieties distinguished by different 

 shades of colour. The Indians speak of them as 

 equally strong and rapacious, and such is their 

 dread of these fierce creatures, that they never ven- 

 ture to attack an individual, except in parties of six 

 and eight, and even then they are frequently de- 

 feated with the loss of one or more of their numbers. 



