ENCOUNTER WITH BEARS. [From the Bytown (Canada) Advocate.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 295, 27 May 1848, Page 3

ENCOUNTER WITH BEARS. [From the Bytown (Canada) Advocate.]

An encounter with four bears took place a few days ago, in the vicinity of Tara-height, on the- Madawaska river, in which a friend of ours and two of his men were the parties engaged. A trap had been set by one of the men named Jacob Harrison, who, being out in search of a yoke of oxen on the evening in question, saw a young bear fast in the trap, and three others close at hand, in a very angry mood — a fact which rendered it necessary for him to make tracks immediately. On arriving at the farm, he gave the alarm, and seizing an old dragoon sabre, he was followed to the scene of action by James H; Burke, armed with a gun, and the other man with an axe. They proceeded direct to the trap, suppli* ed with a rope, intending to take the young bear alive. It being a short time after dark, objects could not be distinctly seen ; but on approaching the scene of action, a crashing among the leaves and dry branches, with sun* dry other indications, warned them of the proximity of the old animals. When within a few steps of the spot a dark mass was seen on the ground — a growl was heard, and the confined beast made a furious leap on Jacob, who was in advance. Catching him by the leg, the infuriated animal inflicted a severe wound on his knee, upon which he drew his sword and defended himself with great coolness. Upon receiving several wounds from the sabre the cub commenced to growl and cry in a frightful and peculiar manner, when the old she bear, attracted to the spot, rushed on the adventurous Harrison, and attacked him behind with all the ferocity attendant on the circumstances. Jacob turned upon the new foe, and wielded his rusty weapon with such energy and success, that in a short time he deprived her of one of her fore-paws by a lucky stroke, and completely disabled her eventually by a desperate cut across the neck which divided the tendons and severed the spinal vertebrae. Having completed his conquest (in achieving which he found the sword a better weapon than the axe, the animal being unable to knock it from bis hand, every attempt to do' so being followed by a wound), he had ample time to despatch the imprisoned cub at leisure. During the time the stirring and dangerous scene we have related was enacting, war wai going on in an equally bloody and vigorous style at a short distance. Mr. Burke, having discharged his gun at the other old bear, and only slightly wounded him, the enraged bruin sprang at him with a furious howl. The animal was met with a blow from the butt end of the fowling piece. At the first stroke the stock flew in pieces, and the next the heavy barrel was hurled a distance of 20 feet among the underwood by a side blow from the dexterous paw of the bear. Mr. Burke then retreated a few feet, aqd placed his back against a large hemlock, followed the while closely by the bear ; being acquainted with the nature of the animal and his mode of attack, he drew c large hunting knife from his belt, and, pla~ cinq his arms by his side, coolly awaited the onset. The maddened brnte approached growling and gnashing his teeth, and, with a savage spring encircled the body of the hunter with the tree in his iron gripe. The next moment the flashing blade of the couteau de chasse tore his abdomen, and his smoking entrails rolled upon the ground. At this exciting crisis of the struggle, the other man, 'accompanied by sr dog, came up to witness the triumphal close of the conflict. Two old bears and a cub were the fruits of the dangerous adventure — all extremely fat r the largest of which, it is computed, would weigh upwards of 2501b5. We have seldom heard of a more dangerous encounter with bears, and we are happy to say that Mr, Burke received no injury. Mr. Jacob Harrison, although torn severely, and having three ribs broken, is doing well onder the care of an Indian doctor of the A]g£nQu|a tribe. The above is one of the ifcjkfly perils incidental to the hardy and adventurous life of backwoodsmen. Dangers manifold, by land and water, beset the devious and difficult patb of the pioneers of civilisation, yet we daily see

them braving and overcoming every obstacle, in order to realize the anticipations of an enterprising spirit, and leave their names to future ages the laudmarks of pristine improvement. King George 111. — He, Lord Eldon. often declared, upon his honour, that he thought his old master had more wisdom than all his Ministers conjointly ; an opinion which I have heard him support, by declaring that he could not remember having taken him any state paper of importance which he did not alter, nor one which he did not alter for the better. But it ought to be added, that this opinion of the superior wisdom of George 111. was qualified by the addition, " Not that I mean to assert that he would have been more ■wise if his opportunities of gaining knowledge had not been greater than that of any of his servants. But what is the experience of the oldest of them in comparison of his ? And though his manner of stating theiesult of that experience is calculated to mislead casual observers, yet those who will divest his matter of his manner must come to the conviction that it has been gathered by long and laborious application of powers of no ordinary strength." After the King's mind had become a wreck, and when its native strength could be traced only by the method of madness, Lord E. would sometimes describe it, after he had been at the Queen's council. The following is an instance of this : of which I retain a perfectly clear recollection. It was agreed, he related, that if any strong feature of the King's malady appeared during the presence of the Council, Sir H. tialford should, on receiving a signal from me, endeavour to recall him from his aberrations ; and accordingly, when his Majesty appeared to be addressing himself to two of the persons whom he most favoured in his early life, long dead, Sir H. observed, ' Your Majesty has, I believe, forgotten that and both died many years ago.' 'True,' was the reply, * died to you, and to the world in general ; but not to me. You, Sir EL, are forgetting that I have the power of holding intercourse with those whom you call dead. Yes, Sir H. H.,, continued he, assuming a lighter manner, *it is in vain, as far as I am concerned, that you kill your patients. Yes, Dr. Bailey ; — but Bailey — Bailey,' pursued he with assumed gravity, * I don't know. He is an anatomist — he dissects his patients ; and then it would not be a resuscitation only, but a re-creation ; and that, I think, is beyond my power.' After his Majesty had, in 1807, changed the Ministry which was so unpalatable to him, I re-appearing as Chancellor, in my former official attire, the King asked, in a whisper, ' My Loid, is not that the o/rfwig V and receiving the reply, ' It is, Sir, the old •wig,' — the rejoinder was, * I say, Lord E., why do you keep an old vig /"

Startling Facts respecting the Increased Consumption of Opium. — The practice of taking opium, laudanum, ether, and morphia, has increased, and is increasing, amongst the population of the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, to a frightful extent. It obtains amongst the aged, the infirm, and the young, and it is confined to neither sex — old men, old women, and young women are equally its victims. It may be safely averred that every second customer who visits the druggist purchases opium, laudanum, or some opiate or narcotic ; whilst every second customer to the grocer is a purchaser of tobacco. It is common to see a man or woman of 20, ,30, or 40 years, with cadaverous countenance, tottering frame, and palsied step, daily going for his or her sixpennyworth of poison ; and we have heard of yearly bills of £20 in one family for opium and laudanum ! In the town of Wisbeach alone there are 400 gallons of laudanum sold and swallowed every year ! eight gallons of laudanum per week, one small shop actually vending two gallons of this Quantity.

Alone Among the Chinese Priests for the First Time. — After inspecting the Tea Faims and the mode of manufacturing it, Mr. Thorn, Mr. Morrison, a son of the late Dr. Morrison, and Mr. Sinclair, returned to Ningpo, leaving me to prosecute my research in natural history in this part of- the country. I was generally absent from the temple the whole day, returning at dark with the collections of plants and birds which I had been lucky enough to meet with in my peregrinations. The friends of the priests came from all quarters of the adjacent country to see the foreigner, and as in the case of a wild animal, my feeding time seemed to be the most interesting moment to them. My dinner was placed on a round table in the centre of the j room, and although rather curiously concocted, being half Chinese and half English, the exercise and fresh air of the mountains gave me a keen appetite,. The difficulties of the chopsticks were soon got over, and I was able to manage them nearly as well as the Chinese themselves. The priests and their friends j filled the chairs, which are always placed down the sides of a Chinese hall, each man with his pipe in. his mouth, and his cup of tea by I

bis side. With all due deference to my host and his friends, I was obliged to request the smoking to be stopped, as it was disagreeable to me while at dioner — in other respects I believe I was polite enough. I shall never forget how inexpressibly lonely I felt the first night after the departure of my friends. The Chinese one by one dropped off to theirhoraes or to bed, and at last my host himself gave several most unequivocal yawns, which reminded me that it was time to retire for the night. My bed-room was up stairs, and to get to it, I had to pass through a small temple such as I have already noticed, dedicated to Tein how, ox the " Queen of Heaven," and crowded with other idols. Incense was burning on the altar in front of the idols — a solitary lamp shed a dim light over the objects in the room, and a kind of solemn stillness seemed to pervade the whole place. In the room below, and also in an adjoining house, I could hear the priests engaged in their devotional exercises, in that singing tone which is peculiar to them. Then the sound of the gong fell upon my ears, and at- intervals, a single solemn tone of the large bronze bell in the belfry — all which showed that the priests were engaged in public as well as private devotion. Amidst scenes of this kind in a strange country, far from friends and home, impressions are apt to be made upon the mind which remain vivid through life — and I feel convinced I shall never forget the strange mixture of feeliugs which filled my mind during the first night of my stay with the priests in the Temple of Tein-tung. I have visited the place often since, passed through the same little temple, slept in the same bed, and heard the same solemn sounds throughout the silent watches of the night, and yet the first impressions remain in my mind distinct and single. — Three years in the Northern Province of China.

Imitative Power in Birds. — So strong is the imitative power of birds, that a canary which has been taught to pipe, having heard a chaffinch that daily sung in a tree near the window where the cage was hung, learnt his note in a few days, omitting at that time the air he had been accustomed to sing. At the end of the spring, after having been removed from the neighbourhood of the chaffinch, he resumed the air as before. A nestling nightingale also learnt the notes of a hedge-sparrow that sung near it, for want of other sounds to imitate ; and it was extraordinary to hear the gentle, although agreeable warble of the latter, attuned to the full compass and power of the nightingale. The effect was most pleasing, although of course not equal to the natural notes of this Lird, not one of which he retained. Indeed, many birds are almost, if not entirely imitative, and, in default of hearing the parent bird, borrow notes of other* ; soft-billed birds always prefer the song of soft-billed birds, and vice versa. It is hoped, from what has been said on the above subject, that persons who are in the habit of keeping caged birds will be induced to educate them in the manner suggested. Then, instead of hearing the shrill, deafening natural notes of the canary, they will be delighted with those of the nightingale, the blackcap, and other warblers. " They will then breathe such sweet music out of their little instrumental throats, that it may make mankind think that miracles are not ceased." So said the good Izaak Walton, — Jesses Favourite Haunts.

The Earl and the Farmer. — A farmer called on Earl Fitzwilliam and complained that, in his hunting excursions with his hounds, he had trodden down a field of wheat so as to do it damage. The Earl told him if he would procure an estimate of the loss he would pay it. The man informed him that he had done so already, and it was believed the damage would be fifty pounds. The Earl paid it. But, as spring came on, the wheat which had been trodden down grew up, and became the best in the field. The farmer honestly returned the fifty pounds. "Ah !" said the Earl, " this is what I like. This is as it ought to be between man and man." After making some inquiries about his family the Earl went into another room, and, returning, gave the man a cheque for one hundred pounds, saying, *' Take care of this, and, when your eldest son is of age, present it to him, and tell him the occasion that produced it." — Liverpool A.bion.

Assassination Clubs. — A short time since we published a sketch of the workings of " The Black Sheep Office," as disclosed on a trial at Kilkeany. Here is the new form adopted: — "As an instance of the character and the proceedings of the confederacy we, Cariow Sentinel, beg to record one fact communicated to us by a gentleman, who possesses property in the county Tipperary, and has left his residence for Dublin. He says that in the neighbourhood wi ere Mr. Roe was assassinated there is a house in which spirits are sold, and in the centre of a room off the kitchen, where the conspirators occasionally assemble, there is a round table. Any member who is desirous to have a man shot writes the name of the victim on the table in chalk,

with the precise amount of the sum to he paid for the job. If the individual he of the poorer classes of society, or a respectable farmer, the task is undertaken and accomplished without further notice : if he be a landlord or agent a jury is summoned, a mock trial takes, place, and the individual marked out for slaughter is formally convicted, and persons nominated to execute the sentence ! just with the same secrecy as that observed by the Vehmn-ge-richt of Westphalia in the middle ages."

Our Billy ! — The grand diversion of the Belgian and German railroads consists in the guards continually asking for the passengers' tickets. lam satisfied it is done for mere pastime ; and a most agreeable and exciting one it certainly is. The directors deserve all praise for inventing it — " Votre billet, monsieur !" The following scene took place in my presence, last year, on one of the Belgian lines :—": — " Votre billet, monsieur !" The guard was addressing the cockney father of a family, *ho knew little more of French than Ido of Japanese. He thought the officer alluded to one of his children, whose familiar appellation happened to be Billy ; and he pushed the boy towards the window to answer for himself. " Votre billet," repeated the guard, laughing : — the Belgians are the best humoured people in the world. "This is mon Billy." " Non, non," said the good humoured guard. " I say, yes, yes," said the father ; and his wife corroborated the statement, putting her hand on Master Billy's shoulder, shaking her head, and repeating — • c Notre Billy — notre Billy — half price — derai prix — notre Billy — under 10 dix annees," pronouncing the dix honestly, every letter of it. It was excellent fun, aud owing to the ticket system on the Belgian railways. — Dublin University Magazine.

An Irish Row. — *An Irishman may be caXledpar excellence the bone-breaker amongst men, the homo ossi/ragus of the human family ; and in the indulgence of this their natural propensity there is a total and systematic disregard of fair play ; there is no such thing known whether at a race or a fight. Let an unfortunate stranger — a man not known iv the town or village — get into a scrape, and the whole population are ready to fall upon him, right or wrong, and beat him to the ground ; when his life depends upon the strength ot his skull or the interference of the police. There is no ring, no scratch, no bottle holder. To set a man upon his legs aller a fall is a weakness never thought of — * Faith, we were hard set to get him down, and why should we let him up again V — ' Sure, it's a Muynehan !' was repeated by fifty voices in a row at Killarney, where all who could come near enough were employed in hitting, with their long blackthorn sticks, at an unfortunate wretch lying prostrate and disabled amongst them. Fortunately, the eagerness of his enemies proved the salvation of the man, for they crowded so furiously together that their blows scarcely ever reached their intended victim. It was ridiculous to see the wild way in which they hit one another ; but so infuriated were they, that no heed was taken of the blows, or probably in their confusion the hurts were ascribed to the agency of the man on the ground. It was no uncommon thing to see columns, of many hundreds strong, march into Killarney from opposite points, for the sole purpose of fighting, on a market-day. Why they fought nobody could tell — they did not know themselves ; but the quarrel was a very pretty quarrel, and no people in the best of causes could go to work more heartily. The screams, and yells, and savage fury would have done credit to an onslaught of Blackfeet and Mew Zealanders, whilst the dancing madness was peculiarly their own. But in spite of the vocal efforts of the combatants, and the constant accompaniment of the sticks, you could hear the dull thud which told when a blackthorn fell upon an undefended skull.' — Paddiana.