Even this is well provided for: the shores of those stern regions are very rocky, and the billows assail them with unceasing fury; yet, the small rocks, or rather masses of huge stone, that have been hurled from their summits, form little coves, and into these innumerable fish are hurried by the waves. When, therefore, the tide recedes, they are left open to the view, and the bear has only to wait patiently for a delicious banquet. Man is the lord of the creation; a large proportion of this fair globe is designed for his use; and hence it is, that so much skill and care are displayed for his convenience. Without the useful animal, of which we speak, human life could not be preserved in some inhospitable portions of the globe; nor if otherwise constructed, could the animal exist in those frozen climes. Let us therefore consider in reference to this, the admirable formation of the bear. His huge and shaggy coat effectually defends him from the cold, and the fat, in which he is cased answers the same purpose; his large broad feet enable him to run with surprising fleetness on the frozen snow; and over slippery ice, along the brink of frightful precipices, down which he seldom slips. His eyes, sunk deep within his head, are well protected from the cold; his ears, too, are defended by thick hair, from being injured by the sleety snow, which often drives against them. Thus wonderfully is the bear constructed, and now for his appropriation. The thick skin, in which he is enveloped, is used by the natives as a covering for their houses, and also for sleeping on it protects the traveller, and keeps him warm at night. When tanned, it makes excellent shoes and thongs. For this purpose, some of the largest skins are stretched on a frame, and exposed to the frost for several weeks. Birch-bark is also used in tanning them, and who does not know that birch-woods abound in those countries; that the elder dies an imperishable red, and the willows a bright yellow? The two former are often found at a great elevation above the sea, and nearly on the borders of perpetual snow. Thither the hardy native goes in quest of them, clothed in thick warm fur, and armed with saws and hatchets, made from the iron mines of Dalecarlia. Bears' skins are also used for caps and gloves, and for the collars of sledge-dogs. Those who traverse the ice to capture marine animals, make their shoe-soles of the skin, and thus protected, they can walk with safety. The bear is a fat animal, and the fat too is invaluable. Cold and darkness envelop the arctic regions for several weary months, and the fat in which he is wrapped, not only serves as an additional protection from the cold while living; but when he is dead, it replenishes the lamps which shine for half the year in the dwellings of the natives. We cannot quit this subject without referring briefly to the meteors and northern lights, which, however strange to us, when seen occasionally in these milder climates, are yet highly beneficial in high latitudes. "By dancing meteors then, that ceaseless shake THOMPSON. And not only are these wondrous meteors important to the traveller, but during the darkest season of the year, the sky is so serene, and the aurora borealis so astonishingly bright, that aided by the moon's clear beams, the Norwegians often carry on their fishery, and work at their different trades in the open air. What an astonishing harmony is here discernible! The woods and mountains, the turbulent seas, and rocky coasts, the meteors, and northern lights, the shaggy inhabitants of the deep pineforests, the snows, and darkness, all unite to form a perfect whole. They are all subservient to the wants of man, and one part admirably tends to supply the deficiencies of another. Noble herds of rein-deer also wander over the same inhospitable plains, through the deep pine-forests of Norway, and Lapland, in Kamtschatka, and Siberia, and frozen Greenland. Such innumerable multitudes resort to the neighbourhood of Hudson Bay, that columns of from eight to ten thousand are seen annually passing from north to south, in the months of March and April, when they are obliged to leave the woods, from which they are driven by the mosquitoes. During summer, these valuable creatures frequent the open birch-woods, on the branches of which they browse, and in passing through them it is amusing to observe how carefully they hold their heads in an horizontal position, to prevent their horns from being entangled among the boughs, and how carefully too they choose their ways. But when on the open plain, they bound with such astonishing celerity, that they are scarcely seen before they vanish, like snow flakes, driven by the wind. When the cold sets in, and the open birch-woods no longer afford them a convenient shelter, they resort to the deep pine-forests, and harbour beneath those evergreens, over which the snow often forms a light and trans parent covering. Thus protected, they principally feed on the rein-deer lichen, which often carpets the ground for many miles; and when they emerge from out their snowy citadels, in order to procure it, the traveller may see them busily employed in shovelling off the snow with their feet and antlers, at which time they generally choose an ascending ground for the convenience of reaching the surface with their lips. This creature is celebrated for its services to the harmless inhabitants of Lapland, in those cold climes, where, during the winter months, the lakes and rivers are completely frozen, and the country is often covered with snow to the depth of four or five feet. While the snow continues falling, it is impossible to travel; but when a partial thaw takes place, the frost. speedily produces a hard impenetrable crust, a slippery pavement, over which the inhabitants, by means of their rein-deer, pass with incredible celerity. "I could almost fancy," said Dr. Clarke, "that I was mounted on the magic steed of German romance, so swiftly did hill, and dale, glacier, and volcano, seem to fly beside me. "Instances have occurred, in which the rein-deer when urged to his utmost steed, has completed a journey of fifty miles without stopping; but in general thirty miles are as much as he can effect. To the Laplander, this valuable animal is a substitute for the horse, and cow, the sheep, and goat. Neither of these could subsist in his frozen land; for though the scenery in summer is exquisitely beautiful, and though the lakes and rivers are bordered with roses, and with flowers of the fairest form and brightest hue, the summer is very short, and the winter soon commences, when the whole country is enveloped for six long months in its snowy mantle. No pasturage for herds could |