BEAE HUNTING. 177 



bumps, would learn to run on skidor as easily as on a pair 

 of skates. 



The forests being now disturbed so much by timber- 

 cutters, the bear is disappearing from many tracks ; 

 they are still, however, to be met with in many parts 

 of the forests where charcoal has been burnt, especially up 

 in Dalecarlia; and any English sportsman who has a 

 wish to spend the winter in bear-hunting, may settle 

 in the little town of Mora, Sara Idre, or Transtrand 

 (all which places can be easily reached by road), in 

 Dalecarlia, where he will be in the very middle of the best bear 

 district, in autumn, and obtain an introduction to one of the 

 afuer jagare, or head huntsmen, who will soon put him into 

 the way of obtaining his desired object. There are several 

 regular bear-hunters in this neighbourhood, and in a late 

 number of the te Swedish Sporting Magazine " I see the 

 names of six, who in all have killed about 115 bears. But 

 " Finmark Amt " must be the happy hunting ground 

 of the Scandinavian bear-hunter; for we read in Mr. 

 Barnard's " Sports in Norway " that, according to a 

 Norwegian pastor, ' ' there is a hill in his parish where a man 

 may feel certain of seeing a bear any day he goes there." 



The bear is rarely killed in the summer, although one 

 would fancy that this were the best time, as they are 

 then wandering about over the forests in search of prey. I 

 fancy they are very poor then, and the skin is worth nothing. 

 In the winter, as all know, they lie up in winter quarters, 

 or, as it is called here, go to " ide." They rarely take pos- 

 session of their ide, which is either an old deserted ant-hill 

 or a little cavity under a fallen log, till the first snow-storm 

 sets in, and so it is not difficult to ring them. This ' ' ring- 

 ing " is the process which is used by the bear-hunters, to 

 discover the place where the bear has gone to ide, or taken 

 up his winter quarters. As soon as they discover the track 

 of the bear in the snow, it is followed step by step till the 

 hunter has reason to believe it has taken to its den 

 at no great distance. ' ' This/' as Mr. Lloyd tells us, ' ' is 

 indicated by his proceeding very slowly, and in a crooked 



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