182 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



that, on my comrades coming up, I forthwith directed Elg 

 to put an end to the wounded bear, whose tracks were 

 deeply marked with blood, which he effected in about ten 

 minutes, and within two or three hundred yards of the spot 

 where the encounter between us had taken place. And a very 

 few minutes afterwards, having in the interval greatly re- 

 covered myself, and put my gun, which in the melee had been 

 buried in the snow, in order, I rejoined him on my skidor." 



I saw Mr. Lloyd a short time after this occurrence, and 

 he then related the fact to me just as quietly as he has 

 described it in his book. He adds : 



" Our prize (which is now stuffed in the British Museum), 

 a male, was emaciated from age, as we imagined, and his 

 fangs either broken or greatly blunted. To the latter cir- 

 cumstance my preservation, under God, was probably at- 

 tributable ; for had his fangs entered my person in every 

 place where they had left indentations, I must have been 

 literally torn to pieces. As it was, I escaped wonderfully. 

 My body, to be sure, was covered with severe contusions, 

 for (the skin being only slightly raised) wounds they could 

 hardly be called. Two or three days subsequently, indeed, 

 the whole of my left hip, and the adjacent parts were per- 

 fectly black. My right hand and wrist were a good deal 

 hurt, for at the commencement of the affair, how I know 

 not, I got my hand into the mouth, and even partially down 

 the very throat of the beast, where it seemed as if embedded 

 in slaver. My skull, for a considerable extent, was laid bare 

 in two places, one wound, by the doctor's account on the 

 following day, being eight, the other nine inches in length, 

 though part of both were of course superficial ; but from my 

 hair being cut very short, and the fangs of the beast thus 

 readily passing through it, I escaped being scalped, as 

 would inevitably have happened had it been worn long, 

 after the fashion of the Swedish peasants. 



" Happily, however, I was so little disabled by the in- 

 juries inflicted on my person by the bear, that I contrived 

 to make my way the same evening to my quarters, a dis- 

 tance of seven or eight miles, and with the exception of 



