16 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAT. 



awake * ; and what is moil furprizing is, that he will lye there 

 the whole Winter, without eating or drinking ; and yet, ac- 

 cording to all accounts, when he goes out in the Spring of the 

 year, he is found to be fatteft : according to the common faying, 

 he has fuck'd his paws, or held them to his mouth ; he fucks 

 them till they make a white froth, which makes them fore and 

 tender ; ib that, in the fpring, when he goes out, he can hardly 

 bear to tread upon a ftone ; ' he is at this feafon lame, and hops 

 about for feme time ; and of this the huntfmen takes advantage. 



His ftomach is alfo fick at this feafbn, and drawn up of his 

 long falling ; and to cure it, he looks out for an ant's hillock, 

 of which he fwallows up the whole \ this fcowers his inlide, and 

 cleanles and flrengthens his ftomach. As long as the Bear lies in 

 his den or hole, he is the property of the proprietor of the wood, 

 according to the Norway law, p. 832. When the farmers go 

 Bear hunting, out a Bear- fhoo ting, they go commonly two or three in company, 

 that they may affift one another, if they mifs their aim : they 

 force him, and tire him, firft with their finall dogs, which are 

 broke or brought up to that fport ; and of this kind he is moft 

 afraid, for they can run under his belly, and will lay hold of 

 his genitals ; larger dogs he lays hold of at once, and tears them 

 to pieces. But when the little ones have tired him, with their 

 running and jumping about him, he then gets up to the fide of 

 a tree, or rock, and fets his back againfl it, and tears up the ftones 

 and earth, and throws fome atone, and fomeat another, to defend 

 himfelf. At this time it is that the markfoian is to give him 

 a ball or two with his rifled gun : if he receives it in his cheft, 

 or under the moulder, or in his ear, he falls: but any other 

 wound makes him the fiercer, and he will fly upon the mooter, 

 who muft defend himfelf, as well as he can, with his empty gun, 

 in which he ought to have a bayonet fixed, as is cuftomary in 

 Switzerland and Tyrol, to keep him off. 



If the mooter or huntfman wants this, and have not a iecond 

 at hand to fend another ball at him, he has nothing to defend 

 himfelf with but his knife, which is like a dagger, and hangs 

 by a brafs chain, always on the fide of a Norwegian farmer ; this 

 he takes crofs ways in his hand, to run down the Bears opened 

 throat. If he does not fucceed in this, his life is loft, the Bear 

 fleas his fkln off, and pulls the hair and flefh over his head and 

 ears, face and all. 



* Concerning this, Ol. Berrichius has given us his judicious thoughts, in orations 

 de animalibus hyeme fopitis. 



Some- 



