44 BEARS. 



The wearing of bearskins, like that of furs, is not 

 always free from inconvenience, and I shall not wander 

 from my subject in citing, as a propos, an episode 

 from the " Voyage d'Acerbi." 



He was crossing in a sledge the Gulf of Finland, 

 which was entirely frozen over. 



" I expected," he writes, "to have to cross a limit- 

 less' and monotonous plain. What was my astonish- 

 ment, my admiration even my fright, the farther 

 we got from our point of departure ! Enormous 

 ' masses of ice, heaped up one above another, some- 

 times in the form of rocks, sometimes of pointed 

 pyramids ! What detours we had to make, in 

 order to avoid these groups of ice which barred 

 our way! In spite of all precautions, our sledges 

 upset one after the other, and constantly brought 

 the caravan to a stand. One circumstance, im- 

 possible to foresee, increased the dangers which 

 surrounded us. The sight of our long pelisses, made 

 of Kussian wolf or bearskins, and the odour which 

 they exhaled, frightened some of our horses, and made 

 them furious. When it became necessary to disengage 

 ourselves from our upset sledges, the horses perceived 

 us, and taking us for the animals with whose skins we 

 were covered, would plunge in their harness, or start 

 off at full gallop. The peasant, fearing to lose his 

 horse, would cling to the bridle, and rather than 



