manner as the most domestic animal would have done, and never attempted to stray from the tents. He did not, however, possess these animals long; for he one day crossed a deep bay in one of the lakes, in order to save a very circuitous route along its bank, and expected the creatures, would as usual, follow him round: but, unfortunately, they did not arrive; and as the howling of wolves was heard in the quarter where they were, it is supposed they had been devoured by those voracious beasts, for they were never afterwards seen.

M. D'Obsonville had a Moose-Deer ir his possession, while in the East Indies. He procured it when only ten or twelve days old, and kept it about two years without ever tying it up. He even let it run abroad, and sometimes amused himself with making it draw in the yard, or carry little burdens. It always came when called, and he found few signs of impatience, except when it was not allowed to remain near him. When he departed from the island of Sumatra, he gave it Mr Law of Lauriston, the governor-general, an intimate friend. This gentleman sent it to his country-house, where, being kept alone, and chained, it became so furious as not to be approached without danger: even the person who every day brought its food was obliged to leave this at some distance. "After some months' absence (says M. D'Obsonville) I returned: it knew me afar off, and as I observed the efforts it made to get at me, I ran to meet it; and never shall I forget the impression which the caresses and transports of this faithful animal made upon me."

A successful attempt has been made at New York to to render the Elk useful in agricultural labour.

THE BROWN BEAR.

(The Editor, and Various Authorities)

IN the expedition to explore the Missouri, Captain

Clarke and one of his hunters encountered one of the

largest brown bears the party had ever seen. As they fired, he did not attempt to attack, but fled with a most tremendous roar, and such was his extraordinary

tenacity of life, that although he had five balls passed through his lungs, and five other wounds, he swam more than half across the river to a sand-bar, and survived twenty minutes. He weighed between five and six hundred pounds at least, and measured eight feet seven inches and a half from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet, five feet ten inches and a half round the breast, three feet eleven inches round the neck, one foot eleven inches round the middle of the fore-leg, and his talons, five on each foot, were four inches and three-eighths in length. It differs from the common black bear in having its talons much longer and more blunt; its tail shorter; its hair of a reddish or baybrown, longer, finer, and more abundant; his liver, lungs, and heart, much larger even in proportion to its size, the heart particularly being equal to that of a large ox; his maw ten times larger; besides fish and flesh, he feeds on roots and every kind of wild fruit.

One of the men who had been ill, and suffered to walk on shore, came running to the boats with loud cries, and every symptom of terror and distress; for some time after he had been taken on board, he was so much out of breath as to be unable to describe the cause of his anxiety, but he at length said, that about a mile and half below, he had shot a brown bear, which immediately turned, and was in close pursuit of him; but the bear being badly wounded, could not overtake him. Captain Lewis, with seven men, immediately went in search of him, and having found his track, followed him by the blood for a mile, and found him concealed in some thick brushwood, and shot him with two balls through the skull. Though somewhat smaller than that recently killed, he was a monstrous animal, and a most terrible enemy; the man had shot him through the centre of the lungs, yet he had pursued him furiously for half a mile, then returned more than twice that distance, and with his talons had prepared himself a bed in the earth two feet deep, and five feet long, and was perfectly alive when they found him, which was at least two hours after he had received the wound. The wonderful power of life which these animals possess renders them dreadful; their very track in the

nud or sand, which has been sometimes found eleven inches long, and seven and a quarter wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming. There is no chance of killing them by a single shot, unless the ball goes through the brains, and this is very difficult, on account of two large muscles which cover the side of the forehead, and the sharp projection of the centre of the frontal bone, which is also thick.

The men in the hindmost canoes discovered a large brown bear lying in the open grounds, about three hundred paces from the river; six of them all good hunters, immediately went to attack him, and, concealing themselves by a small eminence, came unperceived within forty paces of him; four of the hunters now fired, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of them directly through the lungs; the furious animal sprang up, and ran, open-mouthed upon them; as he came near, the two hunters who had reserved their fire, gave him two wounds, one of which breaking his shoulder, retarded his motion for a moment; but before they could reload, he was so near that they were obliged to run to the river, and before they reached it he had almost overtaken them; two jumped into the canoe; the other four sepa rated, and concealing themselves in the willows, fired as fast as each could reload: they struck him several times, but instead of weakening the monster, each shot seemed only to direct him towards the hunters, till at last he pursued two of them so closely, that they threw aside their gus and pouches, and jumped down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet into the river; the bear sprang after them, and was within a few feet of the hindmost, when one of the hunters on shore shot him in the head, and finally killed him; they dragged him to the shore and found that eight balls had passed through him in different directions.

We cannot leave on record the intrepidity of Captain Clarke and his party, without protesting against that wanton cruelty often exercised by adventurers on the brute creation.

The laws of self-defence undoubtedly justify us in destroying those animals who would destroy us, who injure our property, or annoy our persons; but not even

these, whenever their situation incapacitates them from hurting us. What right have we to shoot a bear on an inaccessible island of ice, or an eagle on the mountain's top; whose lives cannot injure us, nor deaths procure us any benefit. We are unable to give life and therefore ought not wantonly to take it away from the meanest insect, without sufficient reason; they all receive it from the same benevolent hand as ourselves, and have, therefore an equal right to enjoy it.

The following is a well authenticated and striking instance of wanton, inhuman, and unnatural cruelty exercised on a poor bear:

"While the Carcass frigate was locked in the ice, early one morning three bears were descried directing their course over the frozen ocean towards the ship. They had no doubt been invited by the scent of some blubber of a sea-horse the crew had killed a few days before, which had been set on fire, and was burning on the ice at the time of their approach. They proved to be a she bear and her two cubs; but the cubs were nearly as large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out of the flames part of the flesh of the sea-horse that remained unconsumed, and ate it voraciously. The crew threw great lumps of the flesh of the sea-horse from the ship upon the ice, which the old bear fetched away singly, laid every lump before her cubs as she brought it, and dividing it, gave each a share, reserving but a small portion for herself. As she was fetching away the last piece, some of the crew levelled their muskets at the cubs, and shot them both dead; and in her retreat, wounded the dam, but not mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling hearts, to mark the affectionate concern expressed by this poor beast in the dying moments of her expiring young. Though she was sorely wounded herself, and could but just crawl to the place where they lay, she carried the last lump of flesh she had fetched, as she had done the others, and dividing it, laid it before them. When she saw they refused to eat, she put her paws first upon one and then upon the other, and endeavoured to raise them up: all this while it was affecting to hear her moans. When she found she could not stir them by these en

deavours, she went to some distance from them, looked back, and moaned. This not availing her to entice them away, she returned, and smelling round them, began to lick their wounds. She went off a second time as before, and, having crawled a few paces, looked again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But still her cubs not rising to follow her, she returned to them again, and with signs of inexpressible fondness went round one and round the other, pawing them and moaning. Finding, at last, that they were cold and lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship, and growled a curse upon their murderers, which they returned with a volley of musket balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their wounds." When they had beheld the maternal affection of the dam, and the tender concern with which she supplied the wants of her cubs, they must be the most unfeeling and inhuman wretches to perform such an act of wanton barbarity.

T

THE BEAVER.

(Bingley's Animal Biography.)

HERE is reason to suppose that this animal was once an inhabitant of Great Britain; for Giraldus Cambrensis says, that Beavers frequented the river Tievi in Cardiganshire, and that they had, from the Welsh, a name signifying "the 'Broad-tailed animals." Their skins were valued by the Welsh laws, in the tenth century, at the enormous sum of a hundred and twenty pence each; and they seem to have constituted the chief finery and luxury of those days. Beavers are at present natives of most of the northern parts of Europe and Asia, but are principally found in North America.

No other quadrupeds seem to possess so great a degree of natural sagacity as these. Yet when we consider that their history, as hitherto detailed, has been principally taken from the reports of the Beaver-hunters, whose object it is, not to study the nature or manners of the animals, but merely to seize upon them as articles of commerce, and whose accounts are often in themselves contradictory, it is necessary that we should not give