THE SCANDINAVIAN BEAR. THE Scandinavian Bear (even supposing it to be of the largest, or destructive species) does not subsist for the most part on flesh; for ants and vegetable substances form the principal parts of its food. However, the bear will occasionally commit devastation among the herds of small Swedish cattle, which are seldom larger than those of the Highlands of Scotland. But then, it is often owing to the latter provoking him, by their bellowing and pursuit of him, which not unfrequently commence as soon as they see him approaching. Young bears seldom molest cattle; but old ones, after having tasted blood, often become very destructive; and unless their career is put an end to, will commit dreadful ravages in the districts where they range. The bear also feeds on roots, and the leaves and branches of various trees. To berries, likewise, he is very partial, and during the autumnal months, when they are ripe, he devours vast quantities of cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cloudberries, and many others, common to the Scandinavian forests. Ripe corn he also eats; and here he commits no little havoc, for seating himself on his haunches, in a field of it, he collects, with his outstretched arms, nearly a sheaf of it, the ears of which he then devours. The bear, it is well-known, is also fond of honey, and will frequently plunder the peasants of their hives. During summer, the bear is always lean; but in the autumn, when the berries are ripe, and consequently food abundant, he generally becomes very fat. Towards the end of October, however, he ceases for that year to feed. His bowels and stomach become quite empty, and contracted into a very small compass, whilst the extremity of them is closed by a hard substance, which, in Swedish, is called Tappen, which is composed principally of pine leaves, the covering of ant-hills, &c., all of which, undergoing a regular process in the stomach of the bear, becomes a substance calculated to supply the absence of that food, which the increasing inclemency of the weather would prevent the animal from obtaining. In the beginning, or towards the middle of November, the bear retires to his den, which he has previously prepared; and here, if undisturbed, he passes the winter months, in constant repose. But though, during the whole of this time, he takes no one particle of nourishment, still he retains his good condition; and the most experienced chasseurs have assured me, that if undisturbed in his lair, no perceptible difference is observable in his condition, whether he is shot in the early part of the winter, or immediately before he rises, in the spring. As the spring approaches, the bear begins to shake off his lethargy, and about the middle of April, though the time depends, more or less, on the severity of the weather, leaves his den. He now parts with the Tappen, before described, and his stomach resuming its functions, he once more roams the forest in search of food. At first, he confines himself to ants, and other food of easy digestion: but when his stomach ▾ has acquired its natural tone, he then devours almost every thing that comes in his way. The story of the bears sucking their paws for the sake of nourishment has, I believe, long since been exploded; and it is, therefore, unnecessary to give any direct contradiction of it. I do not, however, wonder that it should have existed, since I have directed my attention to the habits of the tame bears now in my possession. These animals were constantly sucking or mumbling their legs and paws; and this operation was often continued for some hours together, attended with a murmuring kind of noise, which might have been heard at a considerable distance. In consequence of this, their legs and feet were generally covered with saliva, or rather foam, which might have been easily mistaken by ignorant people for the milk which it was once imagined the bear was in the habit of extracting from its paws. It was not want of food which caused my bears to be thus constantly mumbling; on the contrary, we observed that they were generally so engaged after they had been fed: it therefore remains for the future naturalist to account for this phenomenon. I have reason to believe that the bear obtains a new skin on the balls of his feet during the winter months; and if it be true, that the animal is thus in the habit of licking its paws, when it is in its den, it is probable it may be for the purpose of facilitating the operations of nature. The female bear produces, in her den, about the end of January, or beginning of February. She produces from one to four; and the cubs, when born, are remarkably small; but still, perfect miniatures of bears, and not the misshapen lumps, till licked into shape, which ancient superstition supposed them. She has frequently a second litter, in the autumn of the same year, and then does not produce again for three years. The two litters remain with ner in the den during the winter, and have been seen following her in the spring of the year, till their increased strength enables her to cast them off. The bear is a fast and good swimmer, and, in hot weather, bathes frequently. He climbs well, and in descending trees or precipices, generally comes down backwards. His sight is sharp, and his sense of hearing and smelling excellent. He walks with facility on his hind-legs, and in that posture can carry heavy burdens: he grows to about his twentieth year, and lives to his fiftieth. The Scandinavian bear frequently attains to a great size; I, myself, killed one of these animals that weighed 460lbs.; and Mr. Falk declares in his pamphlet, that he once killed one so large, that when dead, ten men could with difficulty carry him a short distance: he supposed him to weigh near 750lbs. of our weight. their general appearance from the aborigines of the neighbourhood of Sydney. They are of middle stature, and slender in their limbs. The only article of dress used by them is a cloak of Kangaroo skin, reaching nearly to the knee; it is worn as a mantle over the shoulders, and is fastened at the right shoulder with a rush, by which the right arm is left free. They are seldom seen without their cloaks, which in rainy weather are worn with the fur outwards. The other articles of ornament are the noodle-bul, or waistband, armlets, and head-dress. The noodle-bul is a long yarn of worsted, spun from the fur of the opossum, wound round the waist several hundred times; a smiliar band is worn occasionally round the left arm and the head. The single men ornament their heads with feathers, dogs'-tails, and similar articles, and sometimes have long hair bound round their heads. The women use no ornaments, and wear their hair quite short. Both sexes smear their face and the upper part of the body with red pigment, mixed with grease. This they do, as they say, for the purpose of keeping themselves clean, and as a defence from the sun and rain. Their hair is frequently matted with the same pigment. When fresh painted, they are all over of a brick-dust colour. When they are in mourning, they paint a white streak across the forehead and down the cheek-bones. The women put on the white paint in large blotches. They have the same practice as at Sydney, of cutting gashes in the body, and raising an elevated scar. The septum of the nose is also pierced, through which a feather or other substance is worn. A she-bear, with cubs, is a formidable animal to meet in a forest. In most cases of danger, she drives the cubs into the trees for safety; this she effects with so much violence, that the cries of the little ones may be often heard a considerable way off: she then retreats to some little distance. This is a sure token that she means to defend her cubs, and it is then very dangerous to shoot the young ones, unless you first free yourself of the mother, who, in this case, would surely attack you with fury. A peasant of Dalecarlia, one day, in a forest, fell in with a young bear which had taken refuge in a tree. This he shot at, and brought to the ground; but his triumph was of short duration; for the cries of the cub soon brought the mother, all furious with rage, to its rescue. Having discharged his gun, he had nothing wherewith to defend himself at first; he was quickly overpowered, and desperately bitten in every part of his body. He would inevitably have lost his life, had not the bear, at length, severely wounded herself upon the long knife which every peasant of the north carries attached to his girdle. Feeling the pain, she turned from him, and spying her cub on the ground, which now lay dead, she took it up in her mouth, and car-pieces of bark; but they afford a miserable protection ried it off, to the no-small joy of her antagonist.LLOYD'S Northern Field Sports. M. A. B. ACCOUNT OF THE NATIVES OF KING KING George's Sound is situated on the south coast, "The natives of King George's Sound differ little in "Their weapons consist of spears of two or three kinds, which are propelled with a throwing-stick. They have also a knife, stone hammer, and a curl, a curved flat weapon. 66 Their wigwams or huts are composed of a few twigs stuck in the ground, and bent in the form of a bower, about four feet high and five or six wide. They also thatch them slightly with leaves of the grass-tree, and in rainy weather, roof them with : from the weather. Those families who have locations near the sea quit them during the winter for the interior, and the natives of the interior, in like manner, pay visits to the coast during the fishing season. In the summer, the natives often set fire to considerable portions of underwood and grass; the hunters, concealed in the smoke, stand in the paths most frequented by the animals, and spear them as they pass by in this way, great quantities of kangaroos and bandicoots are killed. As soon as the fire has passed over the ground, they walk among the ashes in search of lizards and snakes, which are destroyed in great numbers, and which they eat. In the chase, the hunters are assisted by dogs, which they take when young, and domesticate. The owner of the dog is entitled to an extra proportion of the game killed. Lizards afford a favourite repast; and at some seasons, form a considerable portion of their food; they likewise eat several species of snakes. "In the spring, they live chiefly on the eggs and young of birds. They are extremely expert in climbing trees, which they do by notching the bark; thus they procure the opossums in the holes of the trees. During the summer and autumn months, the natives derive a large portion of their food from fish. As they have no canoes, neither can they swim, they can only catch the fish which approach the shores; they have neither nets, nor hook and line, and the only weapon they use is the spear, with which they are very dexterous. Oysters are to be obtained in large quantities, but none were eaten by the natives, before the settlers taught them the use of them; they are now fond of them when cooked. "Frogs of two or three species are eaten, chiefly at the season of their spawning. They eat also the grubs of a kind of cockchafer, and the eggs of ants. The vegetable substances which they eat are chiefly bulbous roots, which they roast. They suck the honey from the flowers of the Banksia. Their dances vary much, but display neither elegance nor activity. "They have several remedies for diseases; they administer the gum of the grass-tree in cases of dysentery. Their treatment for the bite of a snake is simple and rational; they tie a ligature of rushes above the part, enlarge the wound with the claw of the kangaroo, or the point of a spear, and then suck it, washing their mouths and the wound frequently with water. They possess few utensils, and those of the rudest construction; a piece of soft bark tied at the end serves as a drinking cup, the claw of the kangaroo they use as a needle. They appear to be divided in some kind of tribes, with subdivisions of clans and families, the nature of which are not yet very perfectly understood. "The settlers have of late induced some of the natives to do a little work for them, such as cutting grass and carrying water; but like all savages, they do not like much regular labour." THE green colour in the leaves of plants is produced by the mixture of carbon, which is probably of a deep blue, with the cellular texture, which is of a whitish yellow. The carbon is obtained partly from the earth, partly from the air: but light is necessary for plants to decompose the carbonic gas, of which they retain the carbon only, without the oxygen: and therefore, plants growing in darkness are not green, but white or yellow; as those are which are earthed up, celery, endive, &c. This also accounts for the bending of plants towards the light. Ir is observable in all those who have written the life of Bede, that whereas such Saxon saints, as had not the tenth of his sanctity, nor hundredth part of his learning, are said to have wrought miracles enough to sicken the reader, not one single miracle is reported to have been done by Bede: whereof, under favour, I conceive this is the reason monks, who wrote the lives of many of their Saints, knew little more of many of them than their bare names, and times wherein they lived, which made them plump up the hollowness of their history with improbable miracles, swelling the bowels of their books with empty wind, in default of sufficient solid food to fill them. Whereas Bede's life, affording plenty and variety of real and effectual matter, the writer thereof (why should a rich man be a thief or a liar?) had no temptation (I am sure no need) to stuff his book with fond miracles.-FULler. FULLER says, that some impute the bald and threadbare style of the schoolmen to a design, that no vermin of equivocation should be hid under the nap of their words. Low station is no obstacle to God's favour. St. John was the son of a fisherman; recommended to our Saviour, neither by refinement of education, nor by honourable employment, he was diligently engaged in the labours of an humble occupation, when chosen to accompany his Lord. For those, indeed, whom it hath pleased God to place in the higher states of life, it is right that they should endeavour to perform the duties of their stations, by a due cultivation of their talents, by the acquirement of suitable accomplishments, and by acting up to the rank in society, to which, by the good providence of God, they are born and designated. Nor can such persons act more agreeably to the will of God, nor more effectually for his glory and their own salvation. At the same time, the poor and lowly may reflect, that their poverty and lowliness does not preclude them from the enjoyment of God's favour, and his love in Christ Jesus, provided they be diligent in discharging the duties of their station. "The beloved disciple of Jesus" was, when called upon to follow him, "mending his net" on the lake of Gennesareth.-BISHOP MANT. THE HORN OF THE ALPS. The herdsman, from his beacon hut, Through the glaciers far retreating. Up-raise the hymn with one accord,' Bid all things living Praise the Lord.' And darkness holds its tranquil reign. The peaceful horn resounds again ! And vale to vale, and height to height, And Echo still repeats "Good night!" Again to wake his song of praise. LONDON STONE. Z. LONDON STONE, the Lapis Milliaris of the Romans, is a well-known remnant of antiquity, standing against the south wall of St. Swithin's church, in Cannon Street. Though now reduced to a mere fragment, it is still an object of interest with those who associate the recollection of past events with existing monuments. In former times, this venerable remain was regarded with superstitious zeal; and, like the Palladium of Troy, the fate and safety of the city was supposed to depend on its preservation. Some portion of its decay may be ascribed to the effects of Time; but by far the chief mischief must have been committed by the hands of man. Stow's description of London Stone is as follows; speaking of Walbrook, he says, "On the south side of this street, neere unto the channell, is pitched upright, a great stone, called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, and so strongly set, that if carts do runne against it, through negligence, the wheeles be broken, and the stone itself unshaken. The cause why this stone was there set, and the very time when, or other memory hereef is there none, but that the same hath long continued there is manifest, namely since, or rather before, the Conquest. For in the end of a fayre written Gospell booke given to Christe's Church, Canterburie, by Ethelstane, king of the West Saxons, I find noted of lands or rents in London, whereof one parcel is described to lye near unto London Stone. Of later time we read that in the year 1135, a fire, which began in the house of one Ailward, neare unto London Stone, consumed all east, to Aldgate, &c., and these be the eldest notes I read thereof." "Some have saide this stone to have beene set as a marke in the middle of the Cittie within its walls, but in truth, it standeth farre nearer unto the river of Thames, than unto the walles of the Cittie. Some have saide the same to have been set for the tender Most of our antiquaries consider this stone as a Roman miliary, or more properly as the milliarium aureum of Britain, from which the Romans measured their roads, as from a centre. But Sir Christopher Wren was of opinion, that by reason of its large foundation, it was rather some considerable monument in the forum; for in the adjoining ground, upon digging after the great fire, were discovered some tesselated pavements, and other remains of Roman workmanship and buildings. It was probably mutilated after the great fire, when its "large foundations were seen.' Strype, who considers it anterior to the Roman times, speaks thus. "This stone, before the Fire of London, was much worn away, and as it were but a stump remaining. It is now cased over with a new stone, handsomely wrought and cut hollow, so as the old stone may be seen, the new one being to shelter and defend the venerable old one." The enclosing stone, which is something like a Roman altar or pedestal, admits the ancient fragment, now not much larger than a bombshell," to be seen through a large aperture near the top. 66 London Stone was removed from the south to the north side of the street in 1742, and in 1798 it underwent another removal; and St. Swithin's church being on the eve of undergoing a complete repair, this venerable relic had by some of the parishioners been doomed to destruction; but it was saved by the praiseworthy exertions of Mr. Maiden, a printer, who prevailed on the parish officers, to have it placed against the church wall, where it now stands. -Londiniana. ANNIVERSARIES IN FEBRUARY. 1478 The Duke of Clarence, brother to King Edward IV., being condemned to die, and being granted the favour of choosing the manner of his death, is said to have chosen to be privately drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine, which was accordingly put in execution. 1546 Martin Luther, the great and indefatigable REFORMER of the errors of the Romish Church, died at Eisleben, the place of his birth, in the 63rd year of his age. He was buried with great funeral pomp at Wittemberg, in Upper Saxony. 1645 Sir Richard Baker, author of the Chronicles of the Kings of England, died in the Fleet Prison, London. 1653 A memorable naval battle fought between the English fleet, under Admiral Biake, and the Dutch one, under Van Tromp, off Portland Island, Dorsetshire: the conflict continued three days; during which the English destroyed eleven Dutch men-of-war, and thirty merchantmen. TUESDAY, 19th. Cambridge Term begins.-SHROVE TUESDAY.-This, which is the day preceding the first day of Lent, is so called from the Saxon word shrive, to confess: hence, Shrove Tuesday signifies Confession Tuesday, because, in Popish times, the people in every parish, throughout England, were obliged, one by one, to confess to their own parish priest, and in their own parish church. And that'this might be done the more regularly, the great bell in every parish was rung at ten o'clock, or perhaps sooner, that all might attend. This custom of ringing the great bell in our ancient parish churches still continues; but, among the country people, it has the name of "Pancake Bell," because, after confession, it was anciently the custom to dine on pancakes or fritters. A most barbarous custom once prevailed in this country, of throwing at cocks with sticks, called swingels, on Shrove Tuesday. The poor birds were staked to the ground, and their owners, for a certain sum, permitted the by-standers to throw at them. This cruel custom has, however, for some years been discontinued. WEDNESDAY, 20th. ASH WEDNESDAY: THE FIRST DAY OF LENT.-Ash Wednesday was originally so called from a custom among the Christians of the ancient church, of penitents expressing humiliation for their sins, by appearing in the church in sackcloth and ashes, and having ashes sprinkled on their heads when admitted to do penance. For such discipline is now substituted the public reading of the curses denounced against impenitent sinners, the people saying "Amen" after each malediction. The word LENT, in the ancient Saxon language, signifies spring; therefore this was denominated the Spring Fast, or Lenten Fast; that is, the time of humiliation and prayer observed by Christians before EASTER. At what period forty days were appointed for this solemn fast is unknown; but it seems probable that those who fixed that space of time, had respect to the 1737 Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe, whose writings excite us to the practice forty days' fast of our Saviour in the wilderness. of piety, and the most extensive philanthropy, died, in the 1820 Arthur Young, the writer on rural economy and agriculture, died. 63rd year of her age, at Frome, in Somersetshire. THURSDAY, 21st. 1437 James I. of Scotland, and the first of the Royal race of Stuart, traitorously slain at Perth, whilst at supper in the convent of Dominican friars, thirteen years after his deliverance from captivity in England. His Queen, Joan, (eldest daughter of John Beaufort, first Duke of Somerset,) regardless of her own life, threw herself between the King and the swords of his assassins, and received two wounds. The Island of Trinidad, in the West Indies, taken by the English, who also burnt two and captured three Spanish ships. FRIDAY, 22nd. 1797 1785 Died at North Church, Hertfordshire, Peter, known by the name of The Wild Boy. He had been found in a wild or savage state in the forest of Hertzwold, near Hanover, in Germany, in the year 1725, when he appeared to be about twelve years of age. In the following year he was brought to England, and able masters provided for him; but, proving incapable of instruction, or even of speaking distinctly. a comfortable provision was made for him at the farm-house in which he died. His life was quiet and inoffensive. James Barry, the painter of the celebrated pictures in the rooms of the Society of Arts, in the Adelphi, London, and other excellent productions, died in his 65th year. SATURDAY, 23rd. 1806 1792 1800 Sir Joshua Reynolds, the eminent painter, and many years Died, at Wickham, near Portsmouth, Dr. Joseph Warton, a FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 1303 Three battles fought, between the English and Scots, at Roslin, 1308 Edward II. and his Queen Isabella crowned at Westminster. near Edinburgh; in which the English were defeated. LONDON: PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, PRICE SIXPENCE, BY JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. |