238 
BEAR. 
spects of all the guests ; who, after singing songs to 
celebrate his praise, conclude the ceremony by feast- 
ing on his body. 
In passing through Lithuania Mr. Coxe ob- 
served, in various parts of a forest, circular ranges 
of boards fixed to several trees twelve feet from 
the ground, and projecting three from the trunk. 
On great hunting parties ladders are placed against 
these scafifoldings ; and the hunters, if closely press- 
ed by a bear, ascend the ladder and draw it up 
after them: the bear, although an excellent climber, 
is stopped in his ascent by the projection of the 
boards. 
Hunting the bear is not attended with much 
danger when properly conducted; and as the em- 
ployment is very profitable, it is much practised. 
In Canada and Louisiana, where the black bears 
generally reside in the decayed parts of old trees, 
which are sometimes thirty or forty feet high, the 
hunters disturb them by lighting a fire at the bot- 
tom, and the smoke presently becomes so intolera- 
ble that the black family are obliged to retreat. If 
there is a female and her cubs, the mother descends 
first, and is killed before she reaches the ground: the 
young ones, who soon follow, are easily secured, and 
are generally killed for the sake of their skm and 
delicate flesh. 
The manner in which these animals are chased 
by the Americans, and the superstitious ceremonies 
of the hunters, have afforded a curious subject for 
the very intelligent Mr. Pennant, who in his Arctic 
