Svensson in different parts of the body, or he was standing still as if stupified with the desperate wounds he had received.

In this dreadful situation, Svensson thinks he must have remained for upwards of half an hour, and during all this time his gallant dog never ceased his attacks on the bear for a moment. At last the bear quitted him, and moving slowly to a small tree, at a few paces distant, seized it with his teeth; but he was in his last agonies, and presently fell dead on the ground.

Some little time afterwards, several of Svensson's companions came up to the spot; which they had previously been prevented from doing, in consequence of the distance, and the loose state of the snow. Only one of them was near enough to have rendered him assistance. This was the man the bear had previously so much injured; who was thought by Svensson to have received his quietus, both as regarded the inclination, as well as the ability, to assist him.

On this occasion, Svensson was wounded in thirty-one different places, but principally, in the arms and legs. At one time, the bear seized him by the stomach, but luckily only carried away some of his clothes with his teeth. All the wounds were inflicted with the teeth, and none with the claws; which is a little corroborative of what I have said, when speaking of the man

ner in which a bear makes his attacks upon the human race.

On examining the bear, it was found that Svensson's balls-his rifle having been loaded with two, a common custom in Scandinavia—had gone almost into the same hole; this was just between the eyes; but from the balls being very small, though they had fractured, yet they had not penetrated the skull had they taken effect an inch higher, where the bone is thin, the beast would have been dead in an instant.

If any thing was required to show the insufficiency of small balls for bear-shooting, what I have just related must, I think, set the matter at rest; for, I take it, if Svensson's balls had been of a moderate size, they would have shattered the skull to pieces, and, in consequence, have saved him the dreadful mauling he was destined to endure.

This same bear had in the early part of the winter most desperately wounded a man in the parish of Appelbo in Dalecarlia, who, with several others, was pursuing him; and of the injuries he received on that occasion, it was supposed, he died sometime afterwards.

In the other instance, when Svensson was wounded, it happened in the following manner :Along with several others, he was one day pursuing a she-bear, whom they had deprived of

inches. This was a gratifying sight to me; and thinking it was now time for action, I made the few requisite preparations, and on the evening of the same day, together with Svensson and my dogs, I was off in my sledge for Tönnet, which Jan Finne and myself had fixed upon as the place of our rendezvous.

My sledge, which was built in Finland, differed altogether in shape from those in common use in this part of the country, and was so long, that I was enabled, if I pleased, to recline at nearly my full length. In fact, with the addition of a bear-skin thrown over the back of the sledge, it was the most luxurious vehicle imaginable, and very superior indeed, in point of comfort, to any wheel-carriage in which it was ever my fortune to ride.

To the harness, as is customary in the North of Europe, a set of bells were attached, the music of which was not only very pleasing to the ear, but it served to warn others of our approach, which, from our gliding so silently over the snow, would not otherwise have been perceptible at times.

The accompanying sketch will give a better idea of my sledge, &c. than any written description.

The scenery on our way to Tönnet much resembled that in the vicinity of my quarters. The valley through which the Klar, whose course we followed, meandered, was studded with little farms and hamlets, and, where the soil was favourable, it was in a tolerable state of cultivation; whilst the hills, which on either hand rose to a considerable height, were covered with boundless forests of pine; but instead of the wild waste of evergreens which presented itself to the eye on the preceding day, all nature was at this time wrapped in her wintry mantle of snow, which made the contrast very striking.

The Klar was now generally frozen over, and our route often lay along its surface; but the ice

was not in a very secure state. Indeed, we occasionally passed immediately near to holes where the water was entirely open. Many of these openings in the ice were owing to the rapidity of the stream preventing the water from congealing; whilst others, called windwak, were supposed to originate from air, that had either been confined beneath the surface of the ice when congelation took place, or that subsequently found its way there.

In the early part of this winter, many accidents happened in the Klar. In fact, I heard of no less than nine persons, two belonging to the parish of Exshärad, and seven to that of Ny, both of which were at no great distance from my quarters, having been drowned in that river.

Among the poor sufferers was a peasant girl, who had been married on the morning of the very day on which the catastrophe took place. In spite of her melancholy end, however, it was said, (though I hope not truly,) that the banquet prepared for the occasion was done ample justice to by the party assembled to celebrate the nuptials. Thus the bridal was converted into the funeral feast.

In another instance, two or three peasants were in a sledge after it was dark, when the horse, diverging from the beaten route, approached so immediately near to a windwak (as was seen by his track the next day), that though by swerving