another ring, and thus he continues until he succeeds in accomplishing his object.

The size of a ring depends altogether upon circumstances,-the season of the year, the state of the snow, the localities, &c. ; and in consequence, though some may not exceed a mile or two in circumference, others again are six or eight, or even more. To ring a bear properly requires great experience; and during the operation, if so it may be termed, the greatest silence and caution

are necessary.

Mr Lloyd on several occasions commanded small skalls himself; but he prefers giving an account of one under the direction of his friend, Mr Falk, in the neighbourhood of Stjern, a celebrated general, who has published a pamphlet on skalls, of which Mr. Lloyd gives us a translation and it is a curious document enough. The place of rendezvous was near a lake called the Boda, and there assembled about five hundred men formed into two divisions, armed with axes, pikes, or spears, and presenting rather a warlike appearance. Mr Falk took command in person of the dref, or driving division; the other, the hållet, or stationary-division, he intrusted to one of the under-forest-keepers (krono skogvaktare), who was on all such occasions his right-hand man. His name was Daniel Andersen; but being of Finnish origin, he was known all over the country by the appellation of Jan Finne. Among these Fins-whose ancestors came to Sweden in consequence of an invitation from Charles the Ninthare now to be found many of the most daring and successful bearhunters in the kingdom; but Jan Finne was the champion. Though still in the prime of life, he had killed sixty-five bears with his own gun, independently of all those he had assisted in destroying in skalls. In all his combats he had never been wounded, owing chiefly to his incomparable activity on the skidor or snow-skates, of which more anon. A short time subsequent to the skall which Mr Lloyd describes, Mr Falk represented to the government Jan Finne's general good conduct as forest-keeper, and government awarded him a handsome silver medal,

with which his person was on Sunday decorated in the church at Răda. In presenting him with the medal, Mr Falk stated, in presence of the whole congregation, why such distinction had been conferred, and subsequently gave a sumptuous dinner in honour of the illustrious hunter, to which our author, in compliment to his gallantry and skill, was invited, and where he played an admirable knife and fork, as well as a spoon and cup. Indeed, though Mr Lloyd speaks of his own achievements with much modesty, we know that he is a first-rate sportsman ; nor should we be afraid, now that he has led the skall repeatedly himself, to back him even against the Silver Medalist.

The winter skall, of which we now speak, formed a circle, the circum, ference of which was four thousand paces. On reaching the vicinity of the ring, a general halt took place— knapsacks were deposited, and the troops underwent a rigorous bodily search, for brandy-for a few drunk men disorder a whole skall. Mr. Lloyd was with the stationary division, and on coming to a part of the forest where the trees were rather open, and where there was little brushwood, he placed himself in a favourable position in front of the cordon.

"Here I had not waited more than ten minutes, the people all the while keeping the most guarded silence, when to my left a great shout was set up of The bears! the bears!' In looking in that direction, I very indistinctly saw one of those animals at about a hundred paces distance; but he was so shrouded in the thicket, and my view of him was so transitory, that I did not think it worth while to fire. One of the peasants, however, discharged his

piece at the bears, the four being together, though I believe without effect.

This

shot nevertheless, together with the shouts of the people, was the means of turning them, for they instantly headed about and faced towards the opposite, or eastern, side of the ring. It was fortunate they took this direction, as, had they made to the northward, from the cordon at that time being incomplete, they would in all probability have escaped. I was much afraid this would have been the case; and so, as I afterwards learnt, were Mr Falk and Jan Finne, both of whom, however, on hearing the shot, and apprehending what

might happen, hurried forward their respective divisions as fast as possible, and luckily they were in time to form a junction before the bears made their appearance in that direction.

"Every thing now remained perfectly tranquil for a long while; for, even when the cordon was completed, it became necessary to strengthen those parts that were the weakest, as well as to make certain other arrangements. To effect these objects, Mr Falk, Jan Finne, and the other officers, were kept very actively employed for a considerable time.

"At about one o'clock, three shots, the. one from the centre, and the other from the wings of the opposite division, (the usual signals on these occasions,) together with the cries of the people, which might now be indistinctly heard in the distance, announced that it was advancing towards. us. Two hours or more, however, must have elapsed, during which, from the quicksilver being little above zero, and from my only being provided with my common shooting-jacket, I was almost perished with cold, before we heard another discharge, or saw any thing of the bears; for, now that these animals found themselves environed on every side, they kept the closest and most tangled brakes; and the people, as is usual on these oceasions, proceeded at a very slow pace.

"Beginning to tire at last with remaining so long idle in the same position, I advanced alone about 50 paces farther within the cordon, when I stationed myself in such a situation, that I could command a tolerable view of the surrounding forest. This, however, for the reasons already given when speaking of the skall in Dalecarlia, was altogether contrary to rule.

"Here I had not remained a very long while, when a shot to my left gave me to understand that the bears were not far off; and the next minute, at about one hundred and fifty paces from where I stood, I caught a glimpse of them as they were crossing a small opening among the trees. The old bear was in advance, and the cubs, which were of a very large size, were following in succession upon her track. I might now, by possibility, have done execution; but thinking, from the direction they were taking, that they would come nearer to me, I refrained from firing. In this, however, I acted wrong; for, instead of facing towards me, as I had anticipated, they made for the opposite side of the ring; presently afterwards, indeed, the shouts of the people, together with several shots, plainly indicated that they had made their appearance in that direction.

"Some little while subsequent to this, I was joined by Lieutenant Oldenburg, of the Swedish army, who resided in the vicinity of my quarters at Stjern, and from whom, on various occasions, I have received much civility and attention. This gentleman and myself were conversing together in an uuder tone of voice, and I had my double-gun, which was on the full cock, in my hand, when two of the young bears, either of them nearly as large as animals of that species we are accustomed to see in England, suddenly made their appearance on the outskirts of a thick brake, at about twenty paces from where we stood. On seeing us, however, they squatted like rabbits; or at least this was the case with one of them, for of the other I got the merest glimpse possible.

"We both now fired, the Lieutenant a little after myself, and the foremost of the bears as instantly fell; but the other, at the same moment disappearing in the brake, I had no time to discharge my second barrel. As that which was down, however, showed some disposition to get on his legs again, I ran close up to him, and sent a bullet through his skull. Besides the latter ball, the bear only received one other, which, on his body being opened at a subsequent period, was recognised to be mine. Indeed, when Lieutenant Oldenburg fired, the animal was in the act of falling; and of this he was him. self fully aware. My first ball shattered the bear's right shoulder (the point exposed to me) to pieces, and after passing through his body and ribs, it lodged in the skin on the opposite side; in fact, it was within an ace of going through him altogether the ball was, however, quite flattened, and as large as a halfpenny.

:

"For a while, all remained pretty quiet; but presently afterwards, the tremendous shouts of the people opposite to us, and these, probably, at little more than two hundred paces distance, together with the very heavy firing that was kept up, plainly told us the remaining bears were endeavouring to make their escape in that direction. The scene had now become very animating and interesting, for at one period we counted no less than ten shots in the space of about a minute.

"After a time, however, the firing ceased altogether; and Lieutenant Oldenburg and myself were then almost led to conclude that the whole of the bears were slaughtered. In this supposition, nevertheless, we were mistaken; for presently we viewed the old bear, which, from the manner of dragging herself along, was evidently much wounded, as she was slowly making her way across a small

glade in the forest. Though Jan Finne, who by this time had joined us, called out to me it was useless, I nevertheless sent a ball after her; but as she quickly disappeared in a thick brake, we had no great reason to suppose it took the desired effect.

"In the space of two or three minutes, during which several shots were fired immediately opposite to us, we again saw the old bear. Owing to an intervening brake, however, my view of her was much more indistinct than that obtained by my companions, who were a pace or two to the left of me. At this time she was standing motionless, with her front towards us, and at about 90 paces distant. Jan Finne and Lieutenant Oldenburg now lost no time in discharging the rifles with which both of them were provided. Jan Finne fired the first; and, though without a rest of any kind, with so good an aim, that his ball, as we subsequently found, entered her breast near to the shoulder, and ran the whole length of her body, when it lodged in her haunches. She did not, however, alter her position, and only noticed the wound she had received by a little shake of her head. Lieutenant Oldenburg was, however, more fortunate; for, dropping on one knee, and though like Jan Finne, without a rest, he took so good a direction, that his ball entered the heart of the animal, when she instantly fell dead upon the spot.

On

"The firing in front of us was, at intervals, still kept up for a minute or two longer, and then ceased altogether. this Jan Finne, after we had advanced up to the bear, which Lieutenant Oldenburg and himself had just shot, hallooed to the people to halt; though at this time we were hardly 50 paces distant from them, not one of whom could we distinguish, in consequence of the closeness of the cover. Jan Finne now informed Mr Falk, who was along with his division, and immediately opposite to us, that three of the bears were dead within the ring; for, independently of the two that we ourselves had killed, we observed a third lying hors de combat at some little distance. In reply, that gentleman told us a fourth was killed near to where he stood; so that the whole of those of which, we had come in pursuit -and we had not the good fortune to meet with others in the same ring-were now all slaughtered.

"The skall, as may be supposed, was then quickly brought to a conclusion; for, with the exception of a few hares, which the people knocked on the head with sticks, there was neither wolf nor other animal remaining within the ring.

"Thus ended this battue, which was said to have been among the most suc

cessful Mr Falk ever commanded; for four bears, all of which might almost be termed large, are not to be killed in the Scandinavian forests every day in the year. The result, however, would pro bably have been different, had it not been for Mr Falk's precaution in ordering Jan Finne to lead with his division under the wind in the first instance; as, had the contrary been the case, the bears would most likely, for the time at least, have made their escape. Indeed, from the variableness of the weather subsequently, and the consequent state of the snow, I am not quite sure but that, if those animals had escaped on this occasion, they might have got off altogether.

66

During the skall, I think not less than sixty or seventy shots were fired at the bears, no one on this occasion daring to shoot at any other animal, and the greater part of them at very short range. Towards the conclusion of the skall, indeed, those animals principally held to an almost im penetrably thick brake, where it was hardly possible to see them at more than a few paces distance; and it was here the greater part of the firing took place. The number of shots, therefore, will give some little idea of the kind of performers the peasants usually are on these occasions.

"The whole of the arrangements of this skall were admirable; and the personal exertions of Mr Falk on this, as on all similar occasions, were most unremitting. Indeed, at its conclusion, that gentleman was so hoarse from hallooing to the peo ple, that he was hardly able to articulate a word.

"The bears were now collected toge ther; these, with every other animal killed within the skall, were the perquisite of Mr Falk, as Ofwer-Jägmästare. The old bear was of a large size; and, from the appearance of her teeth, claws, &c. she appeared to be aged. Her weight was supposed to be between three and four hundred pounds. The cubs were thought to be three years old, and to weigh about one hundred and fifty or sixty pounds a-piece. They were all slung on poles, and then borne to the nearest vehicles, by them to be conveyed to Mr Falk's residence at Risäter.

"Three hearty cheers were now given to celebrate our success, when the people dispersed and made for their respective homes."

Casualties at skalls are of course not unfrequent. At one of them, a badly wounded bear rushed upright on his hind legs on a peasant who had missed fire, and seized him by the shoulders with his fore-paws,

The peasant, on his side, laid hold of the bear's ears and shaggy hair about his head. They were twice down and up again without loosening their hold, during which time the bear had bitten through all the sinews of both arms from the wrists upwards, and was at last approaching the throat, when Mr Falk in lucky time arrived, and by one shot ended the conflict. On another occasion, a soldier's wife engaged a bear in single combat,

armed with a club. Several times

Bruin upset her, so as that she performed a somerset, to the infinite amusement of the whole skall. Still the amazon kept banging him, as she arose for the third time from her head; and finally the monster, previously much mangled by shots, gave up the ghost. The following is a welltold incident:—

"The skall to which this anecdote relates, and at which Captain Eurenius himself was present, took place about the year 1790, in the parish of Yestram, in the province of Wenersborg. It was conducted in the usual manner, every person having his proper position assigned to him: one man, however, an older soldier, who was attached to the hållet, or stationary division of the skall, thought proper to place himself in advance of the rest in a narrow defile, through which, from his knowledge of the country, he thought it probable the bear would pass. He was right in his conjecture; for the animal soon afterwards made his appearance, and faced directly towards him. On this he levelled and attempted to discharge his piece; but, owing to the morning being wet, the priming had got damp, and the gun missed fire. The bear was now close upon him, though it is probable that, if he had stepped to the one side, he might still have escaped; but, instead of adopting this prudent course, he attempted to drive the muzzle of his gun, to which, however, no bayonet was attached, down the throat of the enraged brute. This attack the bear parried with the skill of a fencing-master; when, after wresting the gun out of the hands of the man, he quickly laid him prostrate.

"All might still have ended well; for the bear, after smelling at his antagonist, who was lying motionless and holding his breath, as if he had been dead, left him almost unhurt. The animal then went to the gun, which was only at two or three feet distance, and began to overhaul it with his paws. The poor soldier, however, who had brought his musket to

the skall contrary to the orders of his officers, and knowing that if it was injured he should be severely punished, on seeing the apparent jeopardy in which it was placed, quietly stretched out his hand, and laid hold of one end of it, the bear On obserhaving it fast by the other. ving this movement, and that the man in consequence was alive, the bear again attacked him; when, seizing him with his teeth by the back of the head, as he was lying with his face to the ground, he tore off the whole of his scalp, from the nape of the neck upwards, so that it merely hung to the forehead by a strip of skin. depended upon his remaining motionless, The poor fellow, who knew that his safety kept as quiet as he was able; and the bear, without doing him much farther injury, laid himself along his body.

"Whilst this was going forward, many of the people, and Captain Eurenius among the rest, suspecting what had hap pened, hastened towards the spot, and advanced within twelve or fifteen paces of the scene of action: here they found the bear still lying upon the body of the unfortunate man: sometimes the animal was occupying himself in licking the blood from his bare skull, and at others in eyeing the people :-all, however, were afraid to fire, thinking either that they might hit the man, or that, even if they killed the bear, he might in his last agonies still farther mutilate the poor sufferer. this position, Captain Eurenius asserted that the soldier and the bear remained for a considerable time, until at last the latter quitted his victim and slowly began to retreat, when, a tremendous fire being opened upon him, he instantly fell dead.

In

"On hearing the shots, the poor soldier jumped up, his scalp hanging over his face so as completely to blind him; when, throwing it back with his hands, he ran towards his comrades like a madman, franticly exclaiming, The bear, the bear!'

"The mischief, however, was done, and was irreparable. The only assistance he could receive was rendered to him by a surgeon, who happened to be present, and who severed the little skin which connected the scalp with the forehead, and then dressed the wound in the best manner he was able. The scalp, when separated from the head, Captain Eurenius described as exactly resembling a peruke.

"In one sense, the catastrophe was fortunate for the poor soldier. At this time every one in the army was obliged to wear his hair of a certain form, and he in consequence, being now without any, immediately got his discharge,"

From the skall the transition is striking to the gäll-the contrast between the bustle, animation, and crowd of the one, to the silence and solitariness of the other. There, thousands, perhaps, of shouting peasants-here, one patient and silent watcher, perched aloft, perhaps for a fortnight, waiting for a bear! The gäll is a small stand, erected between two or three trees growing near to each other, at some twenty or thirty feet from the ground. Beneath this the carcass of a cow or horse is deposited, and the marksman, as soon as the shades of evening set in, for bears feed during the night, takes his station aloft, and in silence and watch fulness remains till the sun ascend above the horizon. The approach of the bear to the carrion is so cautious that the slightest noise will alarm him; and he generally makes his appearance at the lure soon after sunset and a little before sunrise-for you know, gentle reader! that in these latitudes the night is sometimes scarcely as long as this article. A worthy friend of Mr Lloyd's, a Finnish peasant, named Elg, or the Elk, has sometimes waited for fifteen successive nights, during which, though he heard the bear rustling among the bushes, he was never fortunate enough to see him, and caught nothing but a cold upon his lungs, from which, according to his own account, he never had recovered. Bruin is not only a most suspicious, but also a most suspecting character; and when he has killed and partly eaten a horse or cow, he is very shy of returning to the carcass. Gälls are frequently erected over such carcasses; but the Elk, in one instance, after watching for a fortnight, till his patience was exhausted, gave his place to another peasant for the same period of time. But the bear, having smelt a Fin, and then a Swede, kept his distance; and a month's watching was lost. vertheless, from one gäll, the Elk shot three bears, one of which, on receiving his mortal wound, gave such a growl, that his Elkship was terrified on his stance, while the whole midnight forest echoed to the sound. Mr Lloyd, who was up to every thing, tried the gäll. An enormous bear had killed a cow not many miles distance from Lapp-cottage, where he then had his summer residence. He

Ne

erected a gäll near the carcass, consisting of a few boughs, so interwoven together that he could not well tumble out, between two pines, at about twenty-five feet from the ground. There he posted himself for five successive nights-preyed on by musquitoes-but no bear appeared. On comparing dates, we find that on one of these five nights we were celebrating one of our Noctes Ambrosianæ, at which two bears made their appearance, who were carried off dead. "There was something interesting," says Mr Lloyd, "in being perched up in my gäll. The gloomy solitude of the forest in the night season-the melancholy hootings of the great horned owl, which were to be heard every now and then in the distance the slaughtered cow lying in a small glade before me, mangled in a dreadful manner by the fangs of the bear-and, lastly, the excitement kept up by momentarily expecting the rugged monster himself to make his appearance." In summer you have a better chance of shooting a bear from a gäll than in winter; for then the carrion emits so noisome an odour, that the effluvia proceeding from a man-unless he be very red-haired indeed-must, as Mr Lloyd remarks, be little perceptible. Our author heard of an instance, in which two persons posted on their stand beheld a bear advancing, when, just as they were in the act of firing, the gäll suddenly gave way, and, to their great discomfiture and consternation, they were both precipitated to the ground. But it does not appear the bear eat them-being probably as much alarmed as themselves. On another occasion, two brave fellows, who had waited a fortnight for Bruin's approach, were so dumbfoundered when he appeared, that they dropped their muskets, and he retired to his lair. Considering the shortness of human life, a fortnight at a time past in a gäll seems to us disproportionately long-especially in a country where there is no access to periodical literature. A few numbers of Blackwood's Magazine, to a man so situated, would be a great solace and relief. We must give Mr Lloyd's friend the Elk a niche in Maga. His real name was Henrick Mattson; but having served in the army, the