Note 46 — Secondly, Of Beasts.[45]

“Most fierce in strawberry-time; at which time they have young ones; at which time, likewise, they will go upright, like a man, and climb trees, and swim to the islands: which if the Indians see, there will be more sportful bear-baiting than Paris garden can afford; for, seeing the bears take water, an Indian will leap after him; where they go to water-cuffs for bloody noses and scratched sides. In the end, the man gets the victory; riding the bear over the watery plain, till he can bear him no longer.... There would be more of them, if it were not for the wolves which devour them. A kennel of those ravening runagadoes, setting upon a poor, single bear, will tear him as a dog will tear a kid.”—New-Eng. Prospect, l. c., which see farther; and also Josselyn’s Voyages, pp. 91-2.