3192 Quadrupeds. 



not appeared to them or to us. When however we joined our com- 

 panions lower down, we learned that one of them had seen the bear, 

 and the other had heard him. It appeared that Master Bruin had 

 advanced slowly and cautiously towards the torrent, within sight of 

 one of our party, who was some two hundred yards above him ; and 

 being armed only with a double-barrelled gun, he of course did not 

 shoot at that distance. He described the approach of the bear as 

 most cautious, with his nose close to the ground, sniffing every breath 

 and smelling every shrub, and creeping along like a mouse, he advan- 

 ced straight in the direction of the torrent where the first of our am- 

 bush was placed below the snow, and who heard him crashing in the 

 branches above, and expected him every moment : he must have been 

 within fifteen yards of him at that time ; apparently however the bear 

 smelled an enemy, for again was he seen to retreat and go up the tor- 

 rent, lifting his huge yellow body over the great masses of rock that 

 were strewn in his way, and pulling himself up by his strong fore-legs. 

 Whether he threaded his way among the beaters back into the moun- 

 tain, or whether he contrived to cross the torrent at some other point 

 which was unguarded, I cannot tell; he did not appear again: and 

 so ended the memorable night of the bear-hunt in the mountains of 

 Juste dal. 



Since writing the above I have just received a letter from my friend 

 the Norwegian officer, who tells me he returned late in the autumn to 

 the scene of our bear-hunt in Jiistedal, and with the help of a peasant 

 succeeded in killing the monster. He proved to be a very fine bear, 

 and the Captain describes his skin as magnificent. 



Bears seem to have been most unusually abundant in Norway last 

 year. While staying at the little station of Or men, in the glorious 

 Romsdal, for five days, no less than four cows, belonging to the peo- 

 ple there, were attacked by bears in that time. Two of these were 

 killed, and I saw the remains of their carcasses brought down from the 

 mountains into the village on sledges : one of the others, which was 

 badly wounded, belonged to the landlord of our inn, and conse- 

 quently I saw her wounds dressed every day : they were frightful 

 wounds, and those made by the claws of the bear seemed when probed 

 to be four or five inches deep. The other cow, which was also badly 

 wounded, I did not see. We heard, too, whilst in this Romsdal, that 

 three bears had been seen by a peasant one evening, marching up the 

 valley near Veblungsnoes ; but so extensive and wide are the moun- 

 tains, so endless the forests, and so steep and inaccessible except for 

 bears are some of the rocks, that it was thought perfectly useless to 



