1 8 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



Of the ancient British methods of hunting the 

 Bear, we are but imperfectly informed. We learn, 

 however, from rude descriptions and ruder figurings, 

 that he was watched to his couch, or was traced to 

 his winter retirement, when arrows, pikes, clubs, 

 javelins, and long knives, were used against him ; he 

 was also occasionally betrayed into a pitfall. In 



BEA.B, HUNT. FROM AN OLD PRINT IN POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR. 



later times the Bear was trailed with boar-hounds, 

 and despatched by the spear or knife of the hunter, 



made in his travels through Wales " ("Phil. Trans.," vol.xxvii.p.462), 

 the writer observes : 



" Sir William Williams hath several Welsh MSS. (tho' I think 

 no dictionary) that woxild be of use to me ; but his son tells me he's 

 resolv'd never to lend any. They are chiefly modern copies out of 

 Hengwrt Study in Meirionydhsliire, which I am promis'd free access 

 to ; and have this time taken a Catalogue of all the ancient MSS. it 

 contains. There are the works of Taliefyn, Aneuryn gwawdydh, 

 Myrdhyn ab Morvryn and Kygod'to Elaeth, who lived in the fifth and 



