ination.

The woe-begone look of the old guardsman, as he stood perched upon the
high pinnacle of rock, was again too much for the muleteers; and one and
all of them gave utterance to fresh peals of laughter. His young
masters were too much concerned about their faithful Pouchskin to give
way to mirth; but on ascertaining that he had only received a few
insignificant bruises,--thanks to the Spanish mules not being shod,--
they, too, were very much disposed to have a laugh at his expense.
Alexis was of opinion that their follower had made rather free with the
wine-skin; and therefore regarded the chastisement rather in the light
of a just retribution.

It cost the izzard-hunter a chase before Pouchskin's runaway could be
recovered; but the capture of the jennet was at length effected; and,
all things being set to-rights, a parting salute was once more exchanged
with the muleteers, and the travellers proceeded on their way.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

THE PYRENEAN BEARS.

It was well they had the izzard-hunter for a guide, for without him they
might have searched a long time without finding a bear. These animals,
although plenteous enough in the Pyrenees some half-century ago, are now
only to be met with in the most remote and solitary places. Such
forest-tracts, as lie well into the interior gorges of the mountains,
and where the lumberer's axe never sounds in his ears, are the winter
haunts of the Pyrenean bear; while in summer he roams to a higher
elevation--along the lower edge of the snowfields and glaciers, where he
finds the roots and bulbs of many Alpine plants, and even lichens,
congenial to his taste. He sometimes steals into the lower valleys,
where these are but sparsely cultivated; and gathers a meal of young
maize, or potatoes, where such are grown. Of truffles he is as fond as
a Parisian sybarite,--scenting them with a keenness far excelling that
of the regular truffle dog, and "rooting" them out from under the shade
of the great oak trees, where these rare delicacies are inexplicably
produced.

Like his near congener, the brown bear, he is frugivorous; and, like
most other members of their common family, he possesses a sweet tooth,
and will rob bees of their honey whenever he can find a hive. He is
carnivorous at times, and not unfrequently makes havoc among the flocks
that in summer are fed far up on the declivities of the mountains; but
it has been observed by the shepherds, that only odd indi