400 COMMON BEAR. 
killed by the pointed post. If be escapes ihk 
snare, at a little distance several caltrops and other 
instruments of annoyance frequently await him ; 
among which a similar image is erected. The per- 
secuted beast, the more he strives to get free, fixes 
himself faster to the spot ; and the hunter, who 
lies in ambush, soon dispatches him. 
Yet not only beneath and upon the earth, but 
even in the air, has man's inventive genius con- 
trived to lay snares for the liberty and the life of 
this animal. The Koriaks, for this purpose, find 
some crooked tree, grown into an arched form ; 
at the bowed end of which they attach a noose, 
with a bait. The hungry bear is tempted by 
this object, and eagerly climbs into the tree, 
where he becomes infallibly the victim of his at- 
tempt ; for, on his moving the branch, the noose 
draws together, and he remains suspended to the 
tree, which violently springs back into its former 
position. 
But still more singular and ingenious is the 
method adopted by the inhabitants of the moun- 
tainous parts of Siberia, to make this ferocious 
animal become 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 the bear is accus- 
tomed 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 
efforts ; 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 
