STARTING A FOURTH BEAR. 391 



to the eastward, to a deep and thickly-wooded glen, called 

 Djup-dalen, or the deep dale, where it was supposed a bear 

 harboured ; and after forming line in the usual manner, we 

 beat the country before us. 



The Skall had hardly commenced, when it was re- 

 ported to me that the people had fallen in with the tracks 

 of a bear. As, however, we were then in nearly the same 

 line of country as that traversed on the preceding day, 

 it was at first imagined they might be those of the beasts 

 we then chased. But this was not the fact ; for on 

 examination they proved to be those of another and larger 

 bear, which Elg and I, when on our way homewards the 

 preceding night, had, though unknown to us, roused from 

 his slumbers. It appeared by the marks of our Skidor, that 

 we had passed within three or four hundred paces of his bed, 

 which he had no doubt deserted in consequence of hearing 

 the dogs giving tongue, as we remembered them to have 

 done, at some birds they had flushed from the ground. 



Directions having been given to the people, as to the 

 course they were to take whilst searching for a fresh bear, 

 Elg and I forthwith went* in pursuit of the beast whose 

 tracks we had just fallen in with. 



These we leisurely followed a considerable distance, and 

 until such time as the dogs again roused the bear, when we 

 put our best foot foremost. The chase had not been of long 

 continuance, when, on coining to a rather open part of the 

 forest, we viewed the beast a noble-looking fellow at about 

 one hundred and fifty paces' distance. In imagination, indeed, 

 we called him our own ; but there " is many a slip betwixt 

 the cup and the lip." From sinking deep in the snow at 

 every step, his progress was slow, as was ours also ; so that, 



