The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-10 00:00:00

THE BEAR AND THE BLACK.

A very dreadful occurrence took place-whilst I was at
these diggings. A splendid athletic necmo, full six feet two
inches tall, and of amazing strength,' was at work here.
One morning he went to a favourite spring in the forest for
some clear water, armed only with a bowie knife; when
passing carelessly along, a she-bear rose at him and he
had only time to draw his knife and throw up his arms,
when sho closed. With one hapd he seized her throat in
his giant grasp ; held her at arm's length, and with his
right hand plunged his knife again and again in her side ;
but the bear was mangling him horribly all the time, yet
he never loosened his hold or relaxed his knife-thrusts, and
so they fought on in dreadful conflict, the beast tearing off
his flesh, and the man standing nobly to the fight, until
both sank from loss of blood, and struggled on the ground
for bare life ; the bear's blood was welling from her wounds
and soddening the grass where they lay, making ' the
green, one red.' The negro finding the bear growing
feeble, and himself faint, exerted his remaining strength,
and struck home his knife into her vitals ; then relinquish-
ing his throat:llold for the first time, he rolled over to escape
her claws in her desperate death-throes. His cries for help
had attracted some diggers working near, who arrived when
it was over, and found the negro dying and the bear dead;
and her two small spiteful cubs sitting amazed at their dead
dam. The man still breathed, and, tearing off their shirts,
the diggers bound up his wounds : placing him on a litter
made of branches, they conveyed him to camp, where he
was attended by a digger doctor : and for the moment he
rallied, so well, indeed, as to give us briefly this account;
but he gradually sank away, and in two days more we
buried him on the hill side : a crowd of diggers followed,
and we laid him down amongst others who had passed
away in the wilderness, and set a cross over him, though
he was certainly a black, and most likely not even a
Christian. Peace be to his ashes ; he was a brave man.
There is a good notice of M. du Chaillu's work
on Equatorial Africa and the hero of the season,
the Gorilla. Followed by Hints on Horsemanship,
by Colonel George Greenwood ; a paper on Dog
Shows, and the general sporting intelligence.

Reutledge's Illistrated Natural History. By the

Rev. T. G. Wood, M.A. Part 28.

The extensive family of Parrots and Cockatoos,
occupy a considerable portion of this number. The
mode in which the cockatoos are captured in Aus-
tralia by the natives with a curious weapon peculiar
to that cuntry, the boomerang is described by
Captain Grey in an interesting manner. The no
less remarkable family of Woodpeckers, follows ;
these extraordinary birds, called by the Americans
the Carpenter bird, from the extensive excavations
made by them in the dead wood of trees in search
of the grubs and insects which infest and destroy
the timber. Their services are invaluable in preserv-
ing trees which would otherwise perish. The Rain-
bird, Cuckoo, Cowbird, andsome varieties of pigeons,
are also described with the ability which has
hitherto characterised this work.