350 THE COMMON BEAR. 



parts of Siberia, to make this ferocious animal be-' 

 come his own destroyer. They fasten a very heavy 

 block to a rope, that terminates at the other end 

 with a loop. This is laid near a steep precipice, in 

 the path on which tlie Bear is accustomed to go. 

 On getting his neck into the noose, and finding 

 himself impeded by the clog, he takes it up in a 

 rage, and to free himself from it, throws it down 

 the precipice : it naturally pulls the Bear after it, 

 and he is killed by the fall. Should this, however, 

 accidentally not prove the case, he drags the 

 block again up the mountain, and reiterates his ef- 

 forts ; till, with increasing fury, he either sinks 

 nerveless to the ground, or ends his life by a deci- 

 sive plunge. 



The Bear's well-known partiality for honey, gives 

 occasion to one of the Russian modes of taking him. 

 To those trees where the Bees are hived, a heavy 

 log of wood is hung at the end of a long string. 

 When the unwieldy creature chmbs up to get at the 

 hive, he finds himself interrupted by the log ; he 

 pushes it aside, and immediately attempts to pass it; 

 but in returning, it hits him such a blow, that in 

 a rage, he flings it from Iiim with greater force, 

 which makes it return with increased violence upon 

 himself ; and he sometimes continues this, till he is 

 either killed, orfalls from the tree. 



In some parts of the North, a single man will 

 venture to attack a Bear in the open plains ; and 

 without any other instrument than a stiletto, point- 

 ed at both ends and fastened to a thong, and a sharp 

 knife. The thong he wraps about his right arm, up 



