THE EUROPEAN BEARS AND THE WILD BOAR 
It is only in the north of Sweden that bears are usually met with. In Cen- 
tral Sweden they were not uncommon within the memory of living men, 
but there they are now nearly, if not quite, extinct. It is estimated that 
there are not more than twenty or thirty bears now in Jemtland and 
Angermanland. In Lapland bears are commoner, but since the building 
of the railway they have been much persecuted and are in danger of 
extinction. 
The following statistics drawn up by the Board of Domain Adminis- 
tration show the number of bears killed in Sweden from 1894 to 1905: 
1894, twenty-two; 1895, twenty-one; 1896, fifteen; 1897, ten; 1898, four; 
1899, eleven; 1900, eleven; 1901, eleven; 1902, thirteen; 1903, twelve; 
1904, fifteen; 1905, ten. The increase after 1898 is no doubt due to the 
construction of the railway in Norrbotten, which has facilitated and in- 
creased the means of communication and brought hunters to these parts. 
“ Snowfly,” writing in the “ Field,” June 2, 1906, says: 
“ Formerly bears were to be found throughout the whole of Sweden; 
in the latter part of the seventeenth century most of the Royal bear 
hunts were held in Sodermanland and Vestmanland, a short distance 
only from Stockholm, and up to the middle of the nineteenth century 
these animals were fairly plentiful as far south as Dalsland, Verme- 
land, and Dalecarlia, where, it will be remembered, Lloyd did most 
of his hunting. 
“As showing the alteration which has taken place, while out of 
1,351 bears killed in 1827-36 in the whole of Sweden, forty-one were 
accounted for in the country to the south of Vermeland, Norrland, 
and Dalarne; three only were shot there in 1857-66 out of a total of 
1,113, and none at all since then. Now these animals exist only in 
Herjeadal, Jemptland, and the inland wilds of Vester and Norrbotten, 
possibly also in northern Dalarne, and in the whole of Sweden not 
more than fifteen or twenty are killed annually. The last bear was 
shot in Kronobergs Lan in 1844, in Ostergotlands in 1830, in Gote- 
borgs in 1844, in Elfsborgs in 1851, in Upsala in 1855, and in Orebro 
in 1857. 
“ In consequence of the small number of bears now existing in 
Sweden, and the little harm which they do to the farmer, they are 
seldom hunted except when * ringed * in their winter abode; but 
formerly ‘ skalls ’ for their destruction were held on a large scale. 
The greatest of these drives ever undertaken was carried out on 
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