242 THE BEAR'S DEN. 



This led into a spacious cavern, as high 

 and large, as a good sized apartment, 

 with several low and narrow passages, 

 similar to the one we had entered by, 

 (the villager had followed me in) branching 

 from it in diiferent du'ections. Giving the 

 spear and torch to the man, I began to 

 look around for our friend, but he was 

 no where to be seen. The cave had no 

 appearance of having been occupied before, 

 but a quantity of clotted blood and other 

 traces, pointed out the spot where the 

 wounded bear had been very recently 

 lying. We looked into the diiferent pas- 

 sages, but most of them were so irregular 

 and difficult to get into, that I did not 

 venture to explore them, the more so, as 

 the cavern soon became half filled with 

 the dense smoke from the torch. It was 

 altogether, a weird goblin-looking place. 

 I could have fancied myself, in search of 

 some hidden treasure, as we thrust the 

 spear and torch, as far as it would reach, 

 into the various passages, in the hope that 



