54 THE BROWN BEAR. 



old bears, after having been insulted by them, and eaten a few, 

 often become very destructive, and passionately fond of beef. 

 Sometimes they climb on to the roofs of cow-houses ; tear them 

 off - } and having thus gained admittance, they slaughter and carry 

 away the cattle, by shoving or lifting them through the aperture 

 by which they themselves had entered. Mr. Lloyd says, that 

 on one occasion, a bear dashed in among some cattle, and first 

 despatching a sheep, slew a well-grown heifer, and carried it 

 over a strong fence, four or five feet high, into a wood. Having 

 been frightened from his prey, he absconded, and the peasants 

 felled several trees, which they placed over the dead carcass. 

 But the bear soon returned to the spot, and having by his 

 enormous strength removed the trees, he left not an ounce of 

 flesh on the bones and of the bones themselves, only a few 

 fragments. Jan Finne informed Mr. Lloyd, that a bull was 

 attacked by a rather small bear in the forest, when, striking 

 his horns into his assailant, he pinned him against a tree. In 

 this situation they were both found dead; the bull from starva- 

 tion, and the bear from wounds. The bear frequently attacks 

 horses. With one of his terrible paws the ferocious brute keeps 

 his hold of the poor horse, while with the other he retards his 

 progress by grasping at the trees. He thus destroys, and then 

 devours him. Sometimes the bear, by grasping with one of his 

 paws at the surrounding trees, as he is carried along by the 

 wounded horse, tears them up by the roots -, but if the tree 

 stands fast, so does the horse such is the enormous power of the 

 bear's muscular arm. That a bear should run down a horse 

 seems strange 5 but the Swedish horses are often not very speedy, 

 and, doubtless, lose their senses through fear. The bear never uses 

 his teeth till he brings his victim down - } but strikes him on the 

 back and sides with his dreadful paws, as with a sledge-hammer. 

 Professor Nillson says, that the bear has been seen walking 

 on his hinder feet, along a small tree that lay across a river, 

 bearing a dead horse in his fore-paws. The hunters often kill 

 bears which already have their faces disfigured apparently by 

 the kicks of horses. Hideous wounds are inflicted on cattle by 



