WOUNDED BEAR CHARGING UP A TREK. 381 



That they charge readily enough ii' encountered on foot is familial 

 icu. The incident I am about to relate of a bear charg- 

 ing up a tree at its adversary is, I think, uncommon, although I 

 remember on a previous occasion seeing a wounded bear charge to 

 •• 1 1 •' foot of the tree from which it was fired at, and rear itself up 

 against a ladder on the top rung of which was seated Colonel Bowie, 

 now Inspector-General cf Police, Central Provinces. 



On May 17th, 1890, I was beating a rocky hill in the Central 

 Provinces, and was posted in a Saj tree ( the Black Eque ), when a 

 she-bear galloped by at a few yards' distance. I shot her, and she 

 rolled about on the ground after the manner of bears, complaining 

 bitterly. I fired the second barrel at her as she lay on her back, which 

 appeared to act like a tonic, as she jumped up, charged straight at the 

 tree, and at once began to climb it. So quickly did she come, that, 

 although I never reloaded quicker in my life, she reached my legs 

 just as I got one barrel reloaded. She was on the point of seizing 

 my leg with her teeth when I fired and dropped her. My hat fell 

 off in the scrimmage, and on reaching the ground she tore the inside 

 out. She then made off at a slow walk ; I reloaded and hit her with 

 both barrels, knocking her down once, and, though all the shots but 

 one she had received were well forward, she was still able to walk, 

 and was finished by a shot from my companion, Captain Burton, 

 Royal Fusiliers, who was posted about 100 yards from me. This 

 was a case which one occasionally meets with in sporting prints, 

 appropriately headed " Extraordinary Tenacity of Life in a Bear. " The 

 shot in the tree I found had hit her inside the head of the humerus, 

 breaking the scapula, and so close was she that the hair on her face 

 and chest was singed with the flash, and the wads were driven into 

 the wound : I found them resting against the head of the humerus, 

 The express bullet had split up on the scapula and only a small 

 fragment had entered the cavity of the chest. My mala was tied 

 on the lowest branch of the tree, and I was sitting 13 feet from the 

 ground. The stem of the tree was 3 feet 6 inches in circumference, 

 two feet from the ground, or about 14 inches in diameter. The bole 

 of the tree was perpendicular with only one small shoot at a distance 

 of 5 feet from the ground. My legs hung down alongside the tree, 

 so that my feet were at a height of 11 feet 6 inches. The highest 



