Street, Leith, in
1869. That very day, the police were hunting for Bruin and its leaders
all over Edinburgh. Bears are now debarred from parading our streets.

AN AUSTRIAN GENERAL AND A BEAR.[30]

Mr Paget was told an excellent story of a bear hunt, which took place in
the mountains of Transylvania, and in the presence of the gentleman who
told him the story.

"General V----, the Austrian commander of the forces in this district,
had come to Cronstadt to inspect the troops, and had been invited by our
friend, in compliment to his rank, to join him in a bear hunt. Now, the
general, though more accustomed to drilling than hunting, accepted the
invitation, and appeared in due time in a cocked hat and long gray
greatcoat, the uniform of an Austrian general. When they had taken up
their places, the general, with half a dozen rifles arrayed before him,
paid such devoted attention to a bottle of spirits he had brought with
him, that he quite forgot the object of his coming. At last, however, a
huge bear burst suddenly from the cover of the pine forest, directly in
front of him. At that moment the bottle was raised so high that it quite
obscured the general's vision, and he did not perceive the intruder till
he was close upon him. Down went the bottle, up jumped the astonished
soldier, and, forgetful of his guns, off he started, with the bear
clutching at the tails of his greatcoat as he ran away. What strange
confusion of ideas was muddling the general's intellect at the moment it
is difficult to say, but I suspect he had some notion that the attack
was an act of insubordination on the part of Bruin, for he called out
most lustily, as he ran along, 'Back, rascal! back! I am a general!'
Luckily, a poor Wallack peasant had more respect for the epaulettes
than the bear, and, throwing himself in the way, with nothing but a
spear for his defence, he kept the enemy at bay till our friend and the
jaegers came up, and finished the contest with their rifles."

BYRON'S BEAR AT CAMBRIDGE.

When at Trinity College, Cambridge, Lord Byron had a strange pet. He
"brought up a bear for a degree." He said to Captain Medwyn,[31] "I had
a great hatred of college rules, and contempt for academical honours.
How many of their wranglers have ever distinguished themselves in the
world? There was, by the by, rather a witty satire founded on my bear. A
friend of Shelley's made an ourang-outang (Oran Hanton, Esq.) the hero
of a novel ('Melincour