374 KILL A STAG SAMBUR. 



round unexpectedly and made off with redoubled cries. On being pressed 

 he again turned on me, but at the sight of the barrels covering his head 

 away he went the faster. The next time I killed him the moment he 

 turned ; I could not afford to be sold three times by one bear. 



I now sat down after my run, when my gun-bearer Birrani saw three 

 more bears going at a quick pace along the hillside high above us. I was 

 too unsteady to risk a shot ; they had been alarmed by the firing, and were 

 shambling off in a great hurry. The climb was very stiff, but at last we 

 got on to their track, and followed along the breast of the hill till we found 

 they had entered a deep cave from which it was impossible to dislodge 

 them. M. had no luck. 



We had two blank days after this, not even seeing a bear. On the 

 fourth the luck again fell to my share. The clay previous we had beaten 

 up all the covers below the lake, in order to frighten the bears back to the 

 hill if they were taking shelter in the low country ; and believing that 

 going to our places early in the morning was likely to disturb them on 

 their way homeward, we took our blankets, coffee, &c, with all our men, up 

 the hill in the afternoon, and camped during the night on the summit, in a 

 place sheltered from the wind, and where our small fires would not be seen. 

 There was no dew, and the night was warm and fine, so we slept in the 

 open air for the nonce, though it is a thing to be avoided. 



Having taken a cup of coffee we were at our posts at the earliest dawn, 

 each watching a different side of the hill. No bears appeared before 7 a.m., 

 so I took a long shot (two hundred yards or more) at a sambur standing 

 under a tree. It dropped, but recovered itself and went off. We now 

 started down the hill to beat some ravines at the bottom for sambur, when 

 a fine stag got up, an easy shot to M., but he missed him with both barrels. 

 He was a hundred and fifty yards off before I got a chance, owing to his 

 taking off up the bed of a ravine ; I missed both shots. M. then had two 

 more as the stag was topping a rise two hundred yards away, and more 1 ly 

 accident than good shooting broke one of his fore-legs. A great hunt then 

 began. Boxer and Eosie, two bull-terriers I had with me, followed the 

 stag, and we found them hanging on to him, and covered with blood, in a 

 ravine two miles away. We killed the stag, and having nothing better to 

 do, set to work in the cool and shady ravine to skin him. We had nearly 

 finished when one of a party of markers whom we had left on the top of 

 the hill on the off-chance of bears returning after 7 a.m., came to say two had 

 entered a rocky ravine on the far side of the hill from where we then were, 

 and were safely settled there for the day. We looked at the steep and hot 

 hillside, enough to daunt anybody but sportsmen. However, game is not 



