3-24 



BEAR. 



their sledge-dogs. Those who go upon the ice for 

 the capture of marine animals make their shoe-soles 

 of them, which have this advantage, that the wearer 

 is in no danger of slipping with them. The fat of the 

 bear is held in great estimation as a very savoury and 

 wholesome nourishment ; and when melted, and thus 

 rendered fluid, it supplies the place of oil. The flesh 

 is reckoned such a dainty, that they seldom eat it 

 alone, but usually invite a number of friends to par- 

 take of the repast. The intestines, when properly 

 cleansed and scraped, are worn by the fair sex as 

 masks to preserve their faces from the effects of the 

 sunbeams, which here, on being reflected from the 

 snow, are generally found to blacken the skin, by 

 which means the ladies of Kamtschatka preserve a 

 fine complexion. The Russians of Kamtschatka make 

 window-panes of the intestines of the bear, which are 

 as transparent and clear as those made of Muscovy 

 glass. Of the shoulder blades they make sickles for cut- 

 ting grass. A light black bear-skin is one of the most 

 comfortable and costly articles of the winter wardrobe 

 of a man of fashion at Petersburgh or Moscow ; and 

 even the small white hand of a belle is slipt into a 

 huge bear-muff, which half covers her elegant shape." 



In as far as the muffs are concerned, the females of 

 this country are as fond of handsome bear-skin ones, 

 and, no doubt, wear them as gracefully as they of the 

 land of the autocrat. In the temperate latitudes, neither 

 bears' flesh nor bears' grease is much used, or at all 

 known as a culinary article ; but the latter is in no 

 small request as a cosmetic ; and were it not for 

 bears' grease, half the perfumers in some of our cities 

 might close their bazaars. Thus, in some portions of 

 its body, the bear becomes an article of export to the 

 people of those countries of which it is a native ; and 

 where the grease is the matter in request, it is under- 

 stood to be necessary to fetch the bear entire, and 

 fatten it with offal in the cellar of the vendor. 

 Hence there is a very considerable demand for live 

 bears, as well as for the skins of dead ones ; and 

 though it is highly probable that one veritable bear 

 may impart virtue and give currency to the lard of a 

 hundred hogs, yet an occasional bear becomes neces- 

 sary, in order to prevent the said lard from lapsing 

 into its original state of simple emollient ointment, 

 good for the skin when rigid, but perfectly inert and 

 passive in the matter of ringlets in either sex. 



Many stratagems are naturally had recourse to for 

 the capture of an animal which is in so much request 

 both at home and abroad. The direct methods are 

 to attack him openly with clubs, spears, or fire-artns, 

 according as the captor may be provided. In those 

 parts of Siberia where wood is plenty, a trap of logs 

 is formed by the side of his path, and a trigger 

 placed, which he cannot avoid pulling to his own de- 

 struction. At other times he is snared in pitfalls, in the 

 bottom of which sharp-pointed stakes are placed, and 

 the mouth of the pit is covered with sods placed upon 

 as slight a platform as will bear their weight. The 

 bear is a cautious animal, and anxious to escape from 

 anything which is novel in appearance. Thus the 

 hunters place in his path an elastic "bugbear," which 

 shall start when he touches a cord attached to it, and 

 frighten him off in the direction of the pit. In case the 

 bugbear should not succeed, other means of annoyance 

 are placed in his path such as "caltrops," or pointed 

 double crosses of iron, which, toss them about as you 

 will, always present a salient point logs hung vibrat- 

 ing from the branches of trees and other things of 



artificial contrivance with which the bear, in wild 

 nature, is unacquainted. If these do not drive Ifnu 

 to the pit-fall, they perplex him, make him stand still, 

 and throw him off his guard, so that, the hunter, who 

 is generally lurking about, can approach sufficiently 

 near for taking a deadly aim. At oilier times, again, 

 they bend an elastic tree, secure it. by a cord, and 

 place on it an attractive bait, which the bear has no 

 means of reaching but by ascending the bending tree. 

 This he readily docs ; but before he can reach the 

 alluring prize his neck is entangled in a noose, placed 

 there on purpose, and so contrived, that a very little 

 action against it shall detach the cord by which the 

 tree is held in the bent position. When that is done, 

 the tree springs up with so much elastic force that it 

 jerks the bear clear of every thing but the noose, and 

 at the same time so tightens that upon him, that he 

 hangs suspended, to be cut down when it suits the 

 convenience of the hunter. In the rugged and moun- 

 tainous parts of Siberia they contrive in a still more 

 singular, and rather an ingenious manner, to make 

 the bear his own executioner. They fasten a noose 

 to a very heavy block of wood, and place it in the 

 bear's path, near the brink of a precipice. When he 

 finds his neck entangled, and that the rope keeps him 

 fast to the block, he attacks the latter, and with great 

 fury tumbles it over the precipice, as the best means 

 of getting rid of it ; but the treacherous cord still 

 unites him to it, and he tumbles headlong after it. 

 Bears are, from the structure of their bodies and the 

 thickness of their covering, little liable to be hurt by 

 falls, unless the height be very considerable ; and 

 thus the bear often arrives at the bottom along with 

 the log, without having received any injury. If in 

 such cases there is still a descending precipice, he 

 again moves the log toward that, tumbles it down, and 

 follows it as before ; and if there is not, he is at great 

 labour in carrying it up again, and will repeat the 

 operation till he is completely exhausted by the 

 fatigue, unless he shall be stunned by the falls. In- 

 deed, he is so valuable, that no small portion of the 

 ingenuity of the natives is exercised in various modes 

 of snaring and otherwise capturing the bear. 



As wild honey, wild fruits, and the other substances 

 upon which the brown bear feeds, are very abundant 

 in the Siberian forests, the animals themselves are 

 there both numerous and well-fed. And there they 

 have little or nothing ferocious in their character, 

 but. eat their food peaceably, and when the season 

 of its failure comes, they retire to pass the season of 

 want in their hybernal dens. So far are they from 

 being accounted ferocious or disposed to attack man, 

 that the women and children range about with per- 

 fect freedom, and without the least apprehension, in 

 those parts of the forests where the bears are nume- 

 rous. As they are not much disturbed, except 

 toward the close of the season, when they begin to 

 get fat, they are not timid any more than forward, 

 and it is possible to pass them as closely and as safely 

 as if they were sheep. The sudden appearance of a 

 person in an unwonted dress alarms them and makes 

 them take flight; but it is said that the most cer- 

 tain and efficient of all bugbears is an umbrella, the 

 expanding of which makes them roar and run with 

 all their might ; an umbrella is indeed an object of 

 more dread to most wild animals than the most effi- 

 cient weapon that man can brandish. A fierce 

 bullock is more certainly turned by flashing an um- 

 brella open in his face than by any other means ; 



