THE WRONG BEAR. 415 



lair ; but instead of being reduced to a shadow, as, from 

 having been so much hunted in the early part of the winter, 

 we expected, he proved excessively fat ; and his reputed 

 wounds were found to consist of a mere scratch on the nose, 

 the scar of which was then hardly perceptible. 



All this seemed passing strange, and in spite of our 

 guide's assurance to the contrary, Elg and I had very strong 

 misgivings that we had fallen in with the wrong bear ; and 

 it was not until a fortnight afterwards, when we took the 

 trouble to search the Ring for the second time and for that 

 purpose proceeded on Skidor all the way from Brunberget, a 

 distance of some twenty miles that we gave up, in a degree 

 at least, the notion. 



The mystery was cleared up in the spring, when the 

 wounded bear was found dead at six or seven miles from the 

 Ring, made by the peasants previous to that of which I was 

 the purchaser. It appeared that whilst beating this Ring the 

 men had not only started the wounded bear but a fresh one 

 the beast killed by us but that in the ardour of the 

 chase they had overlooked the track of the wounded bear, 

 which had taken an opposite direction. After all, therefore, 

 Elg and I were right in our conjecture. And if we had 

 only had the wit to have reflected somewhat more on the 

 subject, we should in all probability have bagged two bears 

 instead of one. 



The bear, as mentioned in my former work, frequently 

 selects for his winter quarters the cleft of a rock ; and it is 

 on record that, owing to water dripping from above, such a 

 mass of ice has accumulated at the mouth of his cavern as 

 to block it up entirely, and thereby retain him a prisoner until 

 the spring. 



