30 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. n. 



hunters. The danger of the sport is not, it would seem, 

 very great, there being more risk from the bullets of eager 

 but inaccurate marksmen on the other side of the cordon 

 than from the teeth or claws of Bruin the bear. Mr. 

 Lloyd describes a summer skall (where the bears are not 

 ringed, but are known to be hidden in the forest), to 

 which no less than 1,500 men were summoned, which 

 embraced a tract of country some sixty miles in circum- 

 ference, and which occupied several days. A lynx and 

 three bears, besides a few timid hares, were the somewhat 

 sorry return for all the trouble and expense of the battue. 

 In Scandinavia, as elsewhere, the bear is sometimes 

 domesticated, and if taken young becomes quite tame, 

 and is gentle in its disposition. It is not well, however, to 

 annoy even a well-disposed bear ; for Bruin, like the rest 

 of us, resents practical jokes of too unpleasant a nature. 

 A Swedish peasant had one who used to stand on the 

 back of his sledge when he was on a journey, and the 

 beast had so good a balance that it was next to impossible 

 to upset him. One day, however, the peasant amused 

 himself with driving over the very worst ground he could 

 find with the intention, if possible, of throwing the bear 

 off his balance. In this he succeeded, but not in the 

 manner he expected. The bear retained his balance of 

 body, but lost his balance of mind, becoming so irritated 

 that he fetched his master, who was in front of him, a 

 tremendous thump on the shoulder, which frightened the 

 man so much that he had poor Bruin killed immediately. 

 An American writer gives another instance of ursine 

 irritability. A friend of his would persist in practising 

 the flute near his tame black bear. Bruin bore this in 

 silence for a while, went so far indeed as himself to try 

 and play the flute on his favourite stick ; but at last he 

 could stand it no longer, and one morning knocked the 



