is shaggy and coarse, and his whole aspect dull and heavy. His motions are as awkward as his shape is clumsy; but under this forbidding exterior, he conceals a considerable degree of alertness and cunning. If hunger compel him to attack a man, or one of the larger animals, he watches the moment when his adversary is off his guard. In pursuit of his prey, he swims with ease the broad and rapid stream, and climbs the highest tree in the forest. Many beasts of prey surpass him in running; yet his speed is so great, that a man on foot can seldom escape. Hence, the danger to which a person is exposed from his pursuit, is extreme; he can scarcely hope to save himself by flight; the interposing river can give him no security; and the loftiest tree in the forest is commonly the chosen dwelling of his pursuer, which, so far from affording him a safe retreat, only insures his destruction. The danger of the victim, which the bear has marked for destruction, is increased by his natural sagacity, the keenness of his eye, and the excellency of his other senses, particularly his sense of smelling, which Buffon conjectures from the peculiar structure of the organ, to be perhaps more exquisite than that of any other animal. Nor can any hope be rationally entertained from the forbearance or generosity of his temper; to these, or any other amiable quality, his rugged and savage heart is an entire stranger. His anger, which is easily excited, is at once capricious and intense. A dark and sullen scowl, which, on his forbidding countenance never relaxes into a look of satisfaction, indicates the settled moroseness of his disposition; and his voice, which is a deep murmur, or rather growl, often accompanied with a grinding of the teeth, betrays the discontent which reigns within. It is therefore with jus

tice, that the inspired writers uniformly number him among the most ferocious and dangerous tenants of the forest, and associate his name and manners, with the sorest judgments which afflict mankind.

The peculiar form of his anterior feet, was remarked by David in his address to Saul: "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw, or hand, of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." The original term, it must be admitted, is of very general import; but in its application to the bear, ought to be literally interpreted, because the fore-foot of the bear somewhat resembles the human hand, and is often used as a hand by that animal. When he finds fruit which he relishes, he climbs the tree, sits astride on a branch, with one hand keeps himself firm, and with the other collects the fruit. The paw of the bear, is distinguished by terms which have the same meaning, in the most celebrated writings of Greece and Rome; Aristotle says, the feet of a bear resemble hands; and Oppian, the hands of a bear resemble the hands of a man, and his feet the feet of a man;

Χειράς χερσι βρωτων ικέλαι, πόδες ηδε πόδεσσι.

Ælian observes, that he remains without meat or drink forty days, and it suffices him in the mean time (TM auths dığıav megınıxuaota) to lick his right hand. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, and Pliny in his Natural History, style it Manus, a hand. Thus, to the strength and ferocity of the lion and the leopard, he adds the important faculty of seizing the prey with his hand, and rendering escape more difficult.

* De Nat. Animal. lib. vi, cap. 3.

i Hist. lib. ii, cap. 1.

1

J Lib. iii, 1. 144, 174.

Lib. viii, cap. 54.

The sacred writer also alludes to the grumbling mournful sound of his voice, when he introduces the ancient church as dissatisfied with herself for her wickedness, and deploring the wretched state to which it had reduced her: "We roar," or rather, as Lowth translates it, we groan, all" like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us."m In ages long posterior, Horace celebrates in these lines the mournful tones of the bear :

“Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile.” Epod. 16. But he is more inclined to rage than to complain. It is, according to Virgil, his characteristic temper." The fretful and discontented temper of the bear, when roused by hunger, or irritated by danger, often breaks out into the most violent rage, under the impulse of which he makes terrible havock among the flocks and herds, and resolutely attacks the keepers themselves. At such a time to encounter his fury, is almost to rush upon certain destruction.

"rabido nec perditus ore

Fumantem nasum vivi tentaveris ursi.”

Martial.

Naturally intrepid, or at least indifferent to danger, he is then extremely formidable. To flee from a ravenous lion, therefore, and meet a ranging bear, is to escape from one danger, only to encounter another equally great. "Hence, the prophet Amos, who was bred a herdsman, and must have been well acquainted with the dangers to be apprehended from this strong and furious animal, uses this as a proverbial expression, not only of the succession of calamities with which the ungodly Israelites were to be

n

m Isa. lix, 11.

66 atque in præsepibus ursi sævire." Eneid. lib. xvii, 1. 17.

afflicted, but also to intimate, that the removal of one evil, instead of bettering their circumstances, would only be making way for the approach of another as bad: "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord;' that you may know the worst you have to suffer, or as if the threatened evil will never be inflicted; to what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.' calamity will neither be so slight, nor so transient, as ye presumptuously imagine, but a succession of calamities, all of them grievous, and of which you will be unable to discover any termination: Your case will be, as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him.""

The

The manner in which the bear combats his enemy, is peculiar to himself. While the lion springs upon the victim with a tremendous roar, strikes him down with his paw, and tears him in pieces with his claws and teeth; the bear steals upon his prey in silence, and having reached him, rises upon his hind legs, opens his thick and shaggy arms, and crushes him to death in his horid embrace. "sic hispida turpes

Prælia villosis ineunt complexibus ursi."P

How few have the presense of mind to resist, or the strength to extricate themselves from so great a danger! The name of only one heroic youth is recorded in Scripture, who, by the favour of Jehovah, vanquished in such close combat that powerful and ruthless enemy. When David kept his father's sheep, there came a bear and took a lamb out of the flock; and he went out after him and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when, according to his custom, the enraged savage raised him

self against him to give him the fatal embrace, the dauntless stripling, relying on the protection of his God, and exerting his own uncommon strength, caught him by the chin, "and smote him, and slew him." In this incident, we discover no trace of miraculous power; but the manner in which David afterward spoke of it, clearly shews, that such escapes were very rare, and at no time to be expected but from the Divine interposition. "The Lord delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the

paw

of the bear."

r

The bear is not more ferocious than cunning and deceitful. He lies in ambush under the thicket, or in the skirts of the forest, to seize the unwary passenger; he watches the favourable moment of attack, when the intended victim is off his guard; and steals in silence upon him. If his approach is discovered, and a stout resistance threatened, he retires to his covert, frequently looking back, as if expecting to be pursued. To this artful management, the prophet evidently refers, in his complaint of the suddenness and severity of divine judgments: “ He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in seeret places." The wrath of Jehovah came suddenly and unexpectedly on his country and himself, and with great rapidity and violence, like a bear, that rushing from the forest, in a moment surprises and overpowers the unsuspecting prey.

66

But he acts this wary part only at certain seasons of the year, when he is permitted to range at large, or in those places where game is plenty. When he first goes abroad, after the dreadful rigours of a polar winter, du

a Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. viii, cap. 36. Lewis and Clarke's Trav. vol. i, p. 362.

s Lam. iii, 10.