the game must be within a ring of somewhat less, perhaps, than a mile in diameter; they then advance, with redoubled caution, along the very tracks of the brute, till they come upon him, and, if possible, shoot him in his lair. Should they fail in achieving this, the whole business has to recommence; for it is seldom, or never, that a bear is shot, when once fairly afoot; and thus it will often happen, that, if a party be unskilful or unlucky, the beast will be started more than once, and as often tracked to a fresh hiding-place, before his relentless pursuers are enabled to raise the shout of victory.

I had been on the hunting-ground, which I had marked out for the scene of my operations, about a fortnight; it was on the southern slope of that huge ridge, which, running from north to south, and from the Arctic ocean to the waters of the Baltic, divides, under the name of Dofrafells, the sister kingdoms of Norway and Sweden. My party consisted of a gentleman attached to the English legation, a native servant from the capitala smart active fellow, by birth a mountaineer, whose slight knowledge of French enabled him to act in the capacity of interpreter between us and the rude peasantry, rendering him almost an indispensable companion in our wanderings-and two or three peasants, whose industrious energy had first discovered the animal, for whose destruction we had travelled from Christiana. About a week previous to the commencement of my narrative, we had proceeded selon la règle to beat up the winter-quarters of our friend Bruin; but, owing to the eagernesss of a superb bull-dog, belonging to the attaché, which succeeded in breaking from the servant who led him, before we had exactly ascertained the whereabouts of the den, the game was roused without a possibility of our obtaining a shot; and we had the annoyance of finding his lair, neatly lined with the tenderest shoots of the evergreen pine, yet warm; and of hearing the savage yelp of the brute that had disturbed him so mal a propos, as he dogged his huge antagonist, baying his heels with fierce and sullen pertinacity. The usual mode, on such occasions, is that the gentlemen of the party retire to winter-quarters in the nearest cottage, while the rugged mountaineers undergo the fatigue of ringing the beast a second time, and bring the tidings to their employers, when the difficult task is accomplished.

In the present instance, however, I had overruled my companions, and, after a most exciting tramp, of about thirty miles, on snow-shoes, we had accomplished our first ring without coming across the tracks of our huge game, a second internal circle had been described in the same manner, and with the like effect,-a third and fourth, each of smaller dimensions, had been completed,—and we became certain, on the night with which my narrative commences, that the lair of the animal must be, at furthest, within a mile of our camp. A more beautifully picturesque scene I never witnessed than that rude encampment;-the snow lay evenly, and unbroken, to the depth of nearly two feet, over the whole surface of the country, and the frost was extremely keen. Much smaller game had been taken during our excursion, especially several of those superb birds, the capercailzies, or cocks of the wood, which are so well known to epicures as uniting the wild flavor of the grouse, with the whiteness and delicacy of

the Turkey. These, then, with the aid of certain condiments and drinkables from our canteen, had furnished us with a supper, such as princes might envy; while our previous exercise had supplied us with an appetite such as princes but seldom enjoy. A huge pine-tree had been hewn into logs by our guides; the entire butt of the trunk, some three feet in diameter, was blazing and snapping with an intensity of heat, which might well have dispelled the rigors of a polar winter. Immediately under the lee of this, an area, of perhaps ten feet, had been cleared of the snow, which was piled up in a rude embankment on three sides, the burning tree completing the hollow square-the tall pines around us, towering to the height of sixty feet, without a single branch, stood like a race of giants, dark and and gloomy, save where the red light of the watch-fire touched their rugged bark with a lurid and bronze-like crimson-overhead, their black foliage formed a canopy so dense and impervious, that the moon, although she was riding the heavens in the fullness of her glory, could find no entrance for her beams, unless where, at wide intervals, a pensile of soft light streamed downwards through the gloom, recalling to the mind the ladder by which the patriarch beheld, in Padan Aram, the hosts of heaven descending, and again ascending, to the throne of grace. My comrades all slept soundly-but I lay, for an hour or more, listening to the long howl of the wolves, as they prowled about our camp; and at times even to their stealthy footsteps, with a degree of romantic pleasure wholly indescribable; once a gaunt and grisly monster, whom famine had rendered bolder than his fellows, approached so near that I beheld his eyes gleaming, with the reflected rays of our beacon, like coals of fire-involuntarily I seized my rifle, which leaned, with the other weapons of the party, against a pine-tree at my head, and levelled it right between those glaring eyesanother moment, and the intruder would have dearly rued his audacitybut, recollecting, on the instant, that the near discharge would certainly arouse our more noble game from the slumbers by the aid of which we hoped to steal upon him unperceived, I replaced the gun-turned over on my side-and, in a few minutes, was buried in oblivion of all around me. The stars were still shining, when our guide shook me by the shoulder, and in a few minutes our whole party were assembled around an extempore meal.

We loitered not, like the city epicures, over our board; yet, ere we had finished the repast, so rapidly does morning follow night in those high latitudes, the rosy glow, which streamed under the forest-aisles over the smooth and glistening snow, announced the presence of the day-god above the verge of the horizon! We started at once, diverging at first to some distance each from each, and then regularly closing in upon the centre of the circle-this is the exciting moment; fifty times-as we stole along, examining every hollow stump, and prying into every cavity of the rocks-I fancied that I heard the savage crashing through the forest and as often did I raise my rifle, only to lower it again, in the conviction that I had mistaken some charred and blackened stump for the object of our search. At length, however, our toil was rewarded, but not exactly as we could have desired. In cresting the summit of a little hillock, the

peasant who accompanied me, catching his snow-shoe on some slight inequality, fell forward, and before I could arrest him, pitched headlong down a little precipice, perhaps six feet in height. The fall was nothing; but his piece--an old and dangerous musquet-was discharged, and the ball whistled in anything but agreeable proximity to my head. Nor was this all-for at the instant a growl, the most fearful that can be conceived, told me that the bear was roused. The peasant had been hurled by his fall upon the hidden lair of the beast, and it was fortunate that the impetus of his descent had carried him some feet beyond it, though not till he had struck the animal heavily with the breech of his musquet, which testified, by its broken stock, the violence of the concussion. The man lay on the ground almost stunned, and perfectly helpless with terror, and between us stood the huge and shaggy brute, erect on his haunches, glaring around him with his small bloodshot eye, and churning the foam from his tushes in broad white flakes. I dared not fire-for the fallen man was in my line, and I knew too well the force with which a rifle-bullet is propelled, to risk so perilous a shot. The brute held his ground. I advanced on him in the hope of moving him from his position, and so getting a shot at him; my eye never glanced from the barrel of my weapon, nor did my finger quit the trigger, which it dared not draw. I felt the hot breath of the brute in my very face, so close was I to him, yet he made no offer at retreat, nor could I now draw back, for such a motion on snow-shoes is perilous in the extreme, and I was aware that a fall would be destruction. At this moment I saw by his eye that he was on the point of charging me-still I held my fire-for on my right I heard a rustle of the boughs, and a light footstep -a broad flash of flame drove past my face, and a bullet whistled by-it took effect, but not fatally-the end, however, was gained-the monster turned, rushed headlong towards his new assailant-but, ere he had gone twice his own length, received my ball under his fore shoulder-fell—tore the ground for a moment with tusk and claw-and breathed his last in a fierce roar, which was, however, drowned in the exulting shout, with which we made the forest ring for a full mile around us.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

In consequence of the unusually large quantity of miscellaneous notices contained in the number of the first of February, and the limited issue of new publications which remained after the discussion of those to which the notices of that number related, it has been judged most advisable to devote the pages, for the most part occupied by critical remarks, to other, and it is hoped more interesting, matter.

FEBRUARY 5, 1835.

EDITOR A. M. M.

MARCH OF MIND.

AMONG all the stupendous movements which have characterized the present age, there is one department of human knowledge which has made no strides corresponding to the rapid march in other branches of science. While a host of champions have entered the lists, on both sides of the Atlantic, against existing abuses in the systems of ordinary education, not a single feather has been wielded against the venerable dullness periodically poured forth from our medical colleges.

This apathy in our literary men is not owing to a want of interest in the subject on the part of the public. There is a desire in the human heart to pry into the mysteries of its own physical construction, which has been more or less manifested in every age. This principle is closely connected with superstition and veneration, and may be directed to good or evil. Every reflecting mind must have wondered, at some time or other, at the strange developments of these principles, and lamented the weakness of human nature, and felt pity for the deluded individuals whose hallucination called forth the observation. Strange as it may appear, these deluded men the dupes of quackery-are worshipping, as they believe, unsophisticated truth. They know that truth sometimes lies hidden from the gaze of the million, and they are led to believe that they are the fortunate finders of the hidden secret. There is flattery in the very idea, that we alone have been enabled to discover the merits of the persecuted vender, and the virtues of his incomparable nostrum. But there is a yet more insidious cause of this prevailing delusion. Many of these celebrated charlatans have, by chance, study, or reflection, struck out for themselves some one isolated physiological truth, of which they very innocently imagine that they are the discoverers. This single clue to the mysteries of the fearfully and wonderfully made machine is descanted upon to the gaping patient in such language as he can understand. Conviction flashes upon his mind, and he marvels that the regular physician of his family was never able to explain the thing so clearly. The result is, that he discharges his regular attendant, and becomes a friend for life to a swindler; and this determination is founded upon a principle which is far from bad in its original elements. He determines to worship truth, and to patronise persecuted merit, let what may be the consequences. The manner in which these misdirected principles are to be turned to good account will be hinted at in the sequel. Meanwhile, let us glance at the prevailing and lamentable systems of swindling, which are seducing the honors and emoluments of the profession into unworthy hands. Cast your eye, gentle reader, over the columns of your daily papers, and see the wonderful cures effected by the panaceas -the catholicons-Hygeian pills-royal succedaneums-and essences of salamander, by fire-kings and what not. Visit the splendid bathing estab

lishments, rivalling the Alhambra in voluptuous accommodations, and redolent of nature's most seductive odors. See their majesties, having dominion over fire, air, and earth, as they roll by in their gilded pill-boxes on wheels. See the pickled monsters, stolen from every species of the genus, thrust under your nose, as you thread your way through the fashionable promenades. Visit the imposing infirmaries erected upon the gains of successful quackery, and the proceeds of that swindling which robs a man alike of his health and his fortune. And then say if there is not a march of mind! Who has not heard the music of the hellish army?—the brazen trumpets of their ill-gotten fame?-the drumming of their wretched tools— sheepskins-sheeps-heads and all, and a Baalamite blast by way of obligato? Who has not seen the rank and file of these leaders? Pass them in review, kind reader, before your mind's eye. See the motley subject armed with a torpedo from Swaim's magazine—the gaunt anatomy, primed and loaded with Potter's dragon-slayer-the walking dropsy, from Moat's and Morrison's British College of Health-Death on a pale horse, from the Fire King's heated oven-a walking plaster, as long as Grand street, from the Bowery manufactory-a pair of travelling grinders-a very raw head and bloody bones-all ghastly and grim, from the succedaneum manufactory -and last, though not least, the Homœopathic professors-wicked dogs -taking all the others off in miniature. These, with a thousand others, bear on high, bottles, pill-boxes, plasters and grinders, streaming with banners and uncounterfeitable red labels, having inscriptions holding no quarter to the faculty, and proclaiming triumph over death and hell! The grim monster might well now exclaim, in similar language to that which he held of old, to Scotia's bard

"Sax thousand years are near hand fled,

Sin' I was to the butching bred,

An' mony a scheme in vain's been laid,
To stap or scar' me;

Till ane Chabert's ta'en up the trade,
An' faith he'll waur me.

*

"And then a' doctor's saws and whittles,

Of a' dimensions, shapes, an' mettles,
A' kinds o' boxes, mugs, an' bottles,
He's sure to hae;

Their Latin names as fast he rattles
As A, B, C."

So much for popular curiosity and superstition misdirected for evil purposes.

There are some slight evidences of a redeeming spirit in the age, however; among them is a popular treatise on physiology, reduced to the comprehension of the promiscuous reader, by Combe. It has been republished in this country by the Harpers, and, from the immense number of copies already sold, bids fair to counteract some of the popular error described.