258 SELF-DESTRUCTION. 



of three, if not four, bears firmly attached to it, the fangs 

 being deeply imbedded in the wood itself. 



" It is not for a moment to be thought of, that these skulls 

 could have been fastened to the tree by the hands of man ; 

 and it is not therefore beyond the comprehension of human 

 reason to suppose that the beasts, in their death-struggles, 

 had thus attached themselves to the solid body, to prevent 

 falling into the hands of their pursuers. That none of the 

 other bones were found adhering to the skulls can be easily 

 explained, by the influence that water, and other causes, 

 might, in the course of very many years, have had on the 

 ligaments. 



" In connection with this subject, and in corroboration of 

 what has been stated, I may farther add, that a man now 

 living, and a good bear-hunter, had the misfortune some 

 years ago, to lose a severely-wounded bear in the above 

 manner, in the lake in question. After the beast was fired 

 at, and as was evident, from several circumstances, had 

 received his death- wound, his bloody track was observed to 

 lie across the black morass, in the immediate vicinity of the 

 vand ; and as there was no return track, the only con- 

 clusion that could possibly be come to was, that he had 

 thrown himself into the water. 



" The circumstance of three to four bears having attached 

 themselves to this particular log, would seem to have arisen 

 from more than mere accident. It is not improbable, if one 

 is permitted to make a surmise, that the several beasts 

 having crept unsuccessfully for some time under the water, 

 in order to get hold of a solid body, had all, by a strange 

 coincidence, found their way to the same tree. 



" That bears in the agonies of death," M. Vergeland goes 



