contentedly, like Sir Richard Phillips, on vegetables-to-morrow, like any alderman, devouring an ox. Always rough and ready, his versatility is beyond all admiration. Behold him for months sound asleep, as if in church-he awakes, and sucks his paws with alacrity and elegance then away over the snows like a hairy hurricane. He richly deserves hunting for the highest considerations and for the lowest, only think on- -Pomatum.

The Scandinavian bear— generally a dark brown-but frequently black, and then he is largest-and sometimes silver -for you seldom see two skins altogether alike-is fond of flesh; but ants and vegetables compose his principal food. Indeed, that excellent authority, Mr. Falk, very justly observes, that an animal which is able to devour a moderate sized cow in twenty-four hours, would, if flesh formed the chief part of its sustenance, destroy all the herds in the country. He thinks that the destruction which the bear commits upon cattle is often owing to the latter attacking him in the first instance; for, when provoked by the bellowing and pursuit of him, which not unfrequently commence as soon as they get a view of him, he then displays his superior strength, falls foul of them, and eats them up before sunset. Bears, Mr. Falk says, may reside in the neighbourhood of cattle for years without doing them any injury, if they will but keep quiet; yet it is equally notorious that they will sometimes visit herds solely from the desire of prey. Young bears seldom molest cattle; but old bears, after having been insulted by them, and eaten a few, often become very destructive, and passionately fond of beef. Beef every day, however, palls on the palate of a bear, just as toujours perdrix did on that of Henry the Fourth of France. Accordingly, he varies his diet judiciously, by an intermixture of roots, the leaves and small branches of the aspen, mountain-ash, and other trees, such succulent plants as angelica and mountain-thistle, and berries, to which he is very partialduring the autumn devouring vast quantities of ripe cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cloud-berries, and other berries common to the Scandinavian forests; and there can be no doubt that in a garden he would be an ugly customer among the grozets. Ripe corn he also eats, and seating himself on his haunches in a field of it, he collects, with his outstretched arms, nearly a sheaf at a time-what a contrast to Ruth!— and munches the ears at his leisure. By

way of condiment, he sucks honeyplundering the peasants of their beehives; and, to subdue the excess of sweetness, he ever and anon takes a mouthful of ants, of which the taste is known to all amateurs of acids to be pungent. "If any of these little creatures," quoth Professor Nillson, "sting him in a tender part, he becomes angry immediately, and scatters around the whole ant-hill." That is scarcely decorous in a "budge doctor of the stoic fur;" but it is good exercise, and promotes digestion. Mr. Lloyd says, "this may be perfectly true, for all I know to the contrary; if so, however, I apprehend the bear is generally in an ill-humour with the ants; because, whereever I have met with any of their nests at which the bear had been feeding, they had most commonly been turned inside out."* On the other hand, when a bear gets old, grows sick, and dies, the ants pay him back in his own coin; and, without getting angry, pick himpomatum and all-to the bones. This, in Scandinavia- as elsewhere-is called tit for tat.

During the summer, of course, the bear is always as lean as a post-but in autumn, as fat as a pillow. He is not often found in poor hilly countries, but in the wildest recesses of the forest, where there are morasses and wild woodfruit in abundance. These are his favourite haunts. Towards the end of October, he leaves off eating altogether for that year; his bowels and stomach become quite empty, and contracted into a very small compass, while the extremity of them is closed by an indurated, substance, which in Sweden is called tappen. He retires to his den, and very wisely falls asleep. Professor Nillson avers he gets fatter and fatter in his slumbers on to the end of February; but Mr. Lloyd is sceptical on that point; because, says he, in the first place it seems contrary to reason; and, in the next, I do not know how the point is to be ascertained." Here we take part with the hunter against the professor;' yet one thing is certain, that, let the bear be killed at what period of the winter he may, our gentleman or lady is always embon-point, nor can you feel his ribs. He retains his fat from the time he lies down in the early part of winter, till he rises in spring; and that is surely as much, if not more, than you can have any reason to expect. As spring approaches, he shakes of his lethargyparts with his tappen-and enters on * In his "Field Sports of the North of Eu

rope."

a new career of cows, ants, branches, plants, honey, berries, and corn. Rarely -and but very rarely-he passes his tappen during winter-and then he becomes a scare-crow. At first his stomach is nice, and he eats sparingly -not more, perhaps, than a large dog; confining himself to ants and other delicacies, till his stomach has resumed its natural tone, and then he devours almost every thing edible that comes in his way, according to his usual practice during the preceding autumn.

The story of the bear sucking his paws for nourishment, Mr. Lloyd justly says, has long since been exploded; but still he does suck his paws-and the question is-Why? Mr. Lloyd says, he has reason to believe that the bear obtains a new skin on the balls of his feet during the winter. If, therefore, he does suck his paws-and there is generally some truth in all old beliefsmay it not be done, he asks, for the purpose of facilitating this operation of nature? We think it is very likely so. Some tame bears in our author's possession, were constantly sucking or mumbling their paws; the operation, which was often continued for hours together, being attended with a murmuring kind of noise, which might be heard at some distance. In consequence of this, their legs or feet were covered with saliva, or rather foam, which by ignorant people might not improbably be taken for the milk which it was at one time said the bear was in the habit of extracting from his paws. But it was not the want of food that caused Mr. Lloyd's bears to be so continually mouthing, for they were seen to be thus engaged most commonly immediately after they had been fed.

It is a calumny against the cubs to assert, that when first born they are misshapen Jumps, which the mother licks into form. They are no more mishapen lumps than the young of other animals -say man--but "bears in miniature." The lady-mother bear is generally confined about the end of January, or in the course of February, and has from one to four at a birth. She suckles her progeny until summer is well advanced; and should she happen to be enceinte again in the same year, she does not suffer her former cubs to share her den next winter, but prepares quarters for them in the neighbourhood, within an easy walk. The succeeding, summer, however, she is followed by both litters, who pass the ensuing winter altogether in the mother's den. Some people have talked of seeing thirty bears in one

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squad scampering through the Swedish woods. But they are not gregarious; and such tales are either lies altogether, or a double family with Madame Mère at their head, amounting, perhaps, to some half dozen souls, have been multiplied by wonder into a whole regiment. The bear is a fast and good swimmer quite a Byron. In hot weather he bathes frequently, and runs about to dry himself in the air and sun, just like an Edinburgh citizen on the beach at Portobello. All the world knows he is a capital climber, and like ourselves, or any other rational animal, on descending trees or precipices, always comes down backwards. In a natural state he walks well on his hind-legs, and in that position can carry the heaviest burdens. Professor Nillson, erudite in bears, says, that he has been seen walking on his hinder feet along a small tree that stretched across a river, bearing a dead horse in his forepaws. He is very fleet-continues to grow until his twentieth, and lives until his fiftieth year. The Scandinavian bear occasionally attains to a very great size. Mr. Lloyd killed one that weighed four hundred and sixty pounds-and as it was in the winter-time, when his stomach was contracted, he was probably lighter by fifty or sixty pounds than he would have been during the autumnal months. The professor speaks of one that, when slung on a pole, ten men could with difficulty carry a short distance, and that weighed, he thinks, not less than seven hundred and fifty pounds English. It was killed during the autumnal months; and it had so enormous a stomach, as almost to resemble à cow in calf. After receiving several balls, he dashed at the cordon of people who surrounded him,and severely wounded seven of them in succession-one, in thirty-seven different places, and so seriously in the head that his brains were visible. One of Mr. Falk's under-keepers assured Mr. Lloyd, that he had killed even much larger, the fat of which alone weighed one hundred pounds-and its wrists were so immense, that with both of his own two huge hands, he was unable to span either of them by upwards of an inch. "It was," says Mr. Lloyd, "a Daniel Lambert among his species,"-or rather an Irish giant. The powers of such animals must be indeed tremendous-for as the Swedes say, "together with the wit of one man, he has the strength of ten." Sometimes they climb on to the roofs of cow-houses; tear them off; and having thus gained admittance to the inmates, they slaughter and carry them away, by shoving or lifting through the aperture

by which they themselves had entered. Capital Cracksmen. Mr. Lloyd heard of a bear that, in the agonies of death, thinking he had got his opponent in his arms, hugged a tree, and tore it up by the roots in his fall. Inferior animals he strikes at once with his paws on the fore part of the head, laying bare the whole skull and beating it in; but Mr. Lloyd never knew of any case in which a bear either hugged a person in his arms, or struck at him with his fore paw in the same manner as a tiger or a cat. He seems to tumble men down, and then to fasten his teeth in their arms or throat. A Swedish boor alleged, as the reason of this difference in Bruin's procedure with men and animals, that he supposed he was forbidden by Providence." Mr. Lloyd gives us many anecdotes of the strength and ferocity of bears. On one occasion a bear dashed in among some cattle, and first despatching a sheep, slew a well-grown heifer, and carried it over a strong fence of four or five feet in height into a wood. Having been frightened from his prey, he absconded, and the peasants, felling several trees, placed them over the dead carcass. But Bruin soon returned to the spot, and having by his enormous strength removed the trees, he had not left an ounce of flesh on the bones-and of the bones themselves but a few fragments.

Yet bears seldom-never-eat up the young children that watch the herds. Occasionally they devour a woman; but only when she foolishly attacks them, as in a case recorded by Dr. Mellerlong, who was an eye-witness to a hand, which was all that was left by a bear, of a woman who had chosen to hit him on the head with a billet of wood. Jan Finne, one of Mr. Lloyd's Swedish friends, informed him that a bull was attacked by a rather small bear in the forest, when, striking his horns into his assailant, he pinned him against a tree. In this situation they were both found dead; the bull from starvation, and the bear from wounds. A bear is a match for a dozen wolves. Daniel Jansson, one of Mr. Lloyd's guides, informed him that once during the chase, when he and his companions were far behind both the bear and a dog that was pursuing him, a drove of five wolves-as they knew by their tracks in the snow attacked and devoured the dog. They had afterwards attacked the bear, but after a severe conflict, as was apparent from the state of the snow, and the quantity of hair both from the bear and the wolves that was lying about the

Some

place, the bear came off victorious, and was afterwards killed by the hunters, with his skin useless from the bites of the wolves. Jan Finne mentioned two instances of bears having been killed by wolves-in the one case, seven wolves, and in the other, eleven, having been engaged in the combat. From the immense powers of the bear, if his hindquarters were protected, as in his den, Mr. Lloyd thinks he would be a match for at least a score of wolves. He frequently attacks horses. With one of his terrible paws the ferocious brute keeps his hold of the poor horse, while with the other, he retards his progress by grasping at the trees. He thus destroys-and then devours him. times the bear, by grasping with one of his paws at the surrounding trees, as he is carried along by the wounded horse, tears them up by the roots. But if the tree stands fast, so does the horse-such is the enormous power of the bear's muscular arm. That a bear should run down a horse, seems strange; but Swedish horses are often not very speedy, and doubtless lose their senses through fear. The bear never uses his teeth till he brings his victim down ; but strikes him on the back and sides with his dreadful paws as if with a sledge hammer. Bears are often killed by the hunters, with their faces disfigured apparently by the kicks of horses. The wounds inflicted by bears on cattle are hideous. back and neck of a horse, Mr. Lloyd saw holes of such a size, that he could have buried both his hands in them; and he has heard of the whole of the hind-quarters of a cow or a horse having been actually devoured, and yet the poor creatures found alive. - Blackwood's Magazine.

STANZAS.

In the

WHEN, on my couch, at midnight's chime
I count accumulated years;
To Memory's glance, insidious Time,

How swift thy fluttering wing appears! Soon wilt thou steal my youth's soft prime, And soon must chilling age creep o'er me, And yet it seems, impatient Time!

As if thou'dst hasten'd on before me. In my heart's waste fresh fountains flow; Still beats the thrilling pulse of joy: Imagination's vivid glow

I feel thou canst not quite destroy. 'Tis better live in Fancy's dream,

And spend an intellectual day, Cheer'd on by Feeling's partial gleam, Than drooping, yield to life's decay. Then let me not reproach thee, Time, Since my heart still is fresh and green; So in the cold and sunless clime, The Arctic light in Heaven is seen. New Monthly Magazine.

A LUNATIC LAY.

"I must and will an actress wed."

I MUST and will an actress wed,

Still smile away all shadows, 'The voice of Love is eloquent

In green-rooms-not green meadows: Talk not of rural hills and vales,

They suit my optic sense ill-
The only scenery I prize

Is that of Stanfield's pencil.
The Earl, my father, storms at me,
And says it is a queer age,
When comic first appearances

At last lead to the Peerage;
And my maternal Countess vows
That nothing can console her,
If I disgrace the family

By marrying a stroller!

But, oh! I'd scorn such prejudice,
Although 'twere universal,

For I have been behind the scenes
At night and at rehearsal:
No titled heiress will I ask
To be my benefactress ;
I'd rather elevate my wife,

So I will wed an actress.

Oh! first I burnt for tragic queens,
My passion scarce is cool yet,

I teazed each Mrs. Beverly,
Euphrasia and Juliet ;

And if by Belvidera's frowns
A little disconcerted,

I flew to Mrs. Hailer's side,

And at the wings I flirted.

But Colonel Rant (the gentleman
Who's always amateuring)
Behind the scenes came every night,
With language most alluring;
And he had such a way with him,
He won their hearts by magic,
So I resign'd Melpomene.

And Rant reign'd o'er the Tragic.
To Lady Bells and Teazles next

I turn'd-and Lady Rackets,
Who put their rouge and spirits on
(As boys put on their jackets);
Whose smiles, professionally sweet,
Appear when prompters summon;
Who keep, in fact, their bloom for best,
While sallow serves for common.
And then I sigh'd for the soubrettes
In aprons made with pockets,
Who frisk about the stage like squibs,
And then go off like rockets;
But at their beck I always found
Some beauteous Bob or Billy,
With whom they lightly tript away,
And left me looking silly.
To prima donnas then I turn'd,
The Pollys and Mandanes;
Made love to she Don Carloses,
And female Don Giovannis!
But soon came one with higher notes-
They left me-allegretto!
They sought him-volti subito!
Forsaking me-falsetto !

But now a love for figurants
Within my bosom rankles,

I dote upon extended arms,

And sigh for well-turn'd ankles : Enchanting girls! how dark their hair! How white and red their skin is! I love them all-though wicked wits May call them "Spinning Jennies." In Peter Wilkins I have sigh'd For sylph-like forms, whose trade is To hang suspended by the waist, And act high-flying ladies:

The Country Curate may abuse

My loves because they lack dress, He'll choose a wife from private lifeBut I will wed an actress.

Ibid.

Spirit of Discovery.

SAILING CARRIAGE TWO CENTURIES

AGO.

SEVERAL public journals made mention some time back, of a carriage with sails, which had been plied along the iron railway near Charlestown, at the rate of from twelve to fifteen English miles per hour. The honour of this invention was immediately claimed, by a Belgic writer, for the celebrated Simon Stevin, of Bruges. He has, indeed, an undoubted title to it; and our readers will feel some interest in perusing an account of the trial of a sailing-carriage made by this Belgian two centuries ago, with more success than has attended the recent attempt in England.

Simon Stevin, born at Bruges, was, at the same time, tutor to Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau, and Quarter-mastergeneral of the Army. One of the most remarkable inventions of this learned mathematician was a carriage, fitted with sails, and guided by a rudder. A few days after the victory of Nieuport, Prince Maurice invited several persons of distinction, who were then at the Hague, to take a ride with him in a vehicle without horses, along the plain of Scheveningen. The persons invited were twenty eight in number-amongst whom were the King of Denmark's brother, the Ambassador of France to the Hague, and Admiral Arragon de Mendoza, general-in-chief of the Spanish army, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Nieuport. Great was the surprise of the visiters at the sight of this singular equipage, but it became greater still, when the machine suddenly set out from Scheveningen with surprising velocity. Prince Maurice placed himself at the helm, and took the rope which directed the sail. A south-east wind rose; and in less than two hours, this land vessel had conveyed its passengers to Petten, in North Holland, fourteen leagues from Scheveningen, where the Prince, pretending that he could no longer regulate the rapid motion of the carriage, let it advance into the sea; but regaining the shore by changing the direction of the rudder, he proved that he was as good a pilot as he was a general.-From the Moniteur, 6th June, 1830.

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77

a Reader.

LETTES.

rom the "English at Home.")

Rural Scandal.

ESCAPED from clatter, dust, and smoke, every mortal was in high and huge spirits; and removed from the great scene of dissipation, though it were but a mile or two, each was prepared to moralize upon its vanities, and to cite divers individual examples of the failing, merely by way of illustration. Did you ever see a pigeon-match? Well, this resembled one. For here, as there, folks were congregated, wild for sport, and eager for a hit. From time to time a name was started, just as the poor bird is up-flung from the trap, and slap went every tongue, in a rolling fire of witticism and satire at the game. Not a quizzicality of the last month escaped, not a weakness; crime, indeed, was leniently treated, indignant morality being little the vogue; but every thing less was tossed up impitiably. So good-humoured, and happy, and successful proved the sport, that every sneer was almost a smile, every smile a grin, and every laugh so loud, that the echoes of Wimbledon answered; the open air alone saved the tympanum of good-breeding from being shocked.

Friendship.

He that has not a friend at twenty, will never have one; and woe be to the man of sensibility who lives without one. In youth, he may not feel the want his buoyancy, his poetic and forward feelings, his habits of reverie, may suffice him at that age. But as he advances into more sober and less imaginative manhood, when the sward of life begins to shoot less green, and to put forth fewer flowers, it is then that he feels the want of that "faithful friend,' which he can no longer make nor pur

chase.

London Unsocial.

There is a great number of individuals, especially in the capital, shut out of all society, but what the well-dressed vagrants, for such they are, afford one another. London is the most unsocial of all earthly places; and hence the number of human flies-I compare them to nothing else than that troublesome, common, and filthy insect-that buzz about its streets and coffee-houses, reeling in cellars betimes, and at others thrusting themselves even into clubs. The greatest spreader of a plague is said to be the house-fly; it loves to load

What a miserable thing is second love! effort to mimic past feelings, and stilt what a sad and flat attempt; what a poor ourselves to their height!-to act over again," like a poor player," those impassioned moods and moments, which we experienced, but can never recall. It is dream, and then, when waked from it, like the having dreamed a delicious to lie down again with the hope of redreaming it once more. But no: those visions come not at our bidding; they know not our call. The false magic,

deceive him into the belief that it can the witching dupery of man's heart may

command them. But such is all false, like that of fortune, floods but once, the shadow of a lie. The tide of love, which, unless we take, 'tis gone for

ever.

What a miserable thing, I repeat, is second love! What hollow enthusiasm! The

what alloyed disinterestedness! diminished;-for pride, and vanity, and pain is equal, though the pleasure be susceptible, as jealous, and as anxious a hundred petty feelings render one as as before, but more fretfully and more meanly so. Genuine enthusiasm and passion feeds itself; it gives the strength it takes. But the artificial, the re-excited wears away the spirit, without bringing a spark of fresh vigour.

Art of Conversation.

To

It is

land, circumscribed and intersected, English conversation is like English hedged in and fenced out, studded with preserves so thickly, that the only perviable spot is the vulgar highroad. enumerate the topics forbidden to women, would be to frame a set of categories, from which nothing would be excluded except trifling and flirtation; and the track for even men to follow, is marked with few divergencies. Pride forbids this, false modesty that. considered pedantic, or an unfair monopoly of another's time, to talk of what we know best; and of what we know worst, though it is usual, it is scarcely advisable to dogmatize. At the present period of multiplied and voluminous knowledge, which defies all the power of study or capacity to grasp, the greater part of information we must glean from each other. Folks have come to perceive this, and they have really become as parsimonious of their ideas as of their money. Naught is uttered but with