410 RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. 



distance ; but though we beat the forest far and wide for tin- 

 rest of the day, our efforts to start him were unsuccessful ; and 

 at dusk, therefore, we faced for Ofverberget ; but being sadly 

 wearied, we did not reach it until an hour or two after dark. 



" Fear," they say, " scares people at times out of their 

 propriety." Be that as it may, an over-excited imagination 

 not unfrequently conjures up images that have no existence 

 excepting in a man's own brains. Of this fact, when bear 

 shooting, I have myself seen more than one ludicrous 

 instance. 



During the earlier part of the winter of 1848-9, some 

 peasants in the parish of Ny in Wermeland, whilst engaged 

 in elk hunting, accidentally roused a large bear from his 

 den. Subsequently he was exposed to much persecution ; 

 for not only was a Skall on a pretty considerable scale got 

 up for his destruction, but he was chased on two or three 

 occasions by Finns and others on Skidor. And though he 

 had run the gauntlet thus often, and though badly wounded, 

 he managed to elude his pursuers. 



In the northern forests, when the bear is started, arid 

 travels far and wide, and that it is not convenient for people 

 to follow him in all his wanderings, it frequently happens 

 that, by purchase or otherwise, he changes owners more than 

 once. This had been the case in the present instance; and 

 when I arrived in Wermeland in the beginning of February, 

 1849, some peasants at the Finnish hamlet of Lofskogsasen 

 claimed the beast as their property. To this place, which 

 lay at twelve to fourteen miles to the north-west of Brun- 

 berget, Elg and I forthwith proceeded on Skidor ; and after 

 some little bargaining, and the payment of some rix-dollars, 

 the right and title to the bear became vested in me. 



