BBAES. 143 



exhibited one to the people of Alexandria in the feast which he 

 gave on his accession to the throne (b.o. 323), and his son seems 

 to have imported a considerable number of them, which he caused 

 to be killed at the celebrated entertainments given in honour of 

 his father. The Egyptian author of the third century, Athenaeus 

 in his " Deipnosophists," gives an account of these marvellous 

 entertainments, and of the procession. It was at this fite the 

 triumph of Bacchus was represented, and a very great number of 

 animals were exhibited, among them being elephants, stags, ante- 

 lopes, 130 Ethiopian sheep, 300 Arabian sheep, 20 Buboean sheep, 

 some white hornless cattle, 26 Indian cows, 8 ^Ethiopian oxen, 1 

 immense white hear, 14 leopards, 16 panthers, 4 lynxes, 3 arceti, 

 1 camelopard, and 1 rhinoceros from Ethiopia, a pack of 2400 

 dogs, 24 enormous lions, and a vast number of beasts, herds of 

 animals and horses. 



How he procured the white bears seems to have puzzled 

 naturalists, for until lately it was not known that these animals 

 were to be found anywhere but in the frozen seas. Kueppel, 

 however, found them near Mount Lebanus, and this explained 

 how Ptolemy procured them, for it was easy work to bring them 

 from that region.-' 



On the authority of Dr. Henry Kink,^ the Danish traveller, 

 killing a bear is considered one of the most distinguishing feats of 

 sportsmanship in Greenland; an idea that has descended from 

 ancient times, when the spear was the only weapon the inhabi- 

 tants possessed; now, however, the animal is surrounded and 

 held at bay by dogs until shot, an enterprise fraught with 

 more danger to the hounds than the men. 



The capturing of animals, however, for exhibition purposes is an 

 employment fraught with considerable danger, and has been the 

 source of many thrilling adventures. It is generally undertaken 

 by the intrepid whalers in the northern seas, who bring them home 

 on their return journey, hooped up in a cask or case, in which it 

 must require some ingenuity to incarcerate them without injuring 

 the animals or being injured by them. 



1 M. Marcel de Sems in Edinburgh New PMlosopMcal Journal, 1834. 



2 " Danish Greenland : Its People and its Products," 1877. 



