BOXER, ROSIE, AND THE BEARS. 375 



to be obtained, any more than other good things, without labour, and we 

 commenced the climb, leaving some men to finish skinning the sambur. 

 We had no water, and would have given five pounds for a mugful before 

 our task was completed. However, after many halts to breathe and to 

 wipe the streaming perspiration from our faces and necks, we reached 

 the summit. 



The ravine the bears had been marked into was half-way down the 

 other side of the hill. At its head grew two or three magnificent trees, the 

 only shade-giving ones on the hill at that season — the height of the hot 

 weather. Beneath them was a dripping, moss-grown well of excellent 

 water. How we posted down towards it, over large boulders and through 

 long grass ! In our hurry M. fell and damaged himself considerably, and I 

 narrowly escaped denting my rifle-barrels, which would have been nearly 

 as bad as breaking my legs. At last we got to the haven, where we drank 

 and rested for half an hour, and considered ways and means with the local 

 shikarie. 



The ravine was about half a mile in length, and debouched into the 

 plain below. The adjacent ground sloped steeply into it on both sides, 

 whilst its dry bed was strewn with large boulders. M. elected to keep 

 along parallel with the ravine and about fifty yards up the slope on the 

 left side. I knew the bears must be amongst the boulders at the bottom, 

 so I went down the bed with the men to put them up. 



We searched for some distance, occasionally turning our eyes to the 

 men whom we had left on the top of the hill to signal if the bears left the 

 ravine, and to mark them down again if we failed in our attack upon them, 

 till Birram's quick eye spied the pair lying on a ledge of rock above us, 

 under the shade of another rock, and fast asleep. I fired into them as they 

 lay. Out they came, and I hit them both again as they bundled down the 

 ravine. They were desperately wounded, but both kept on, whilst I stayed 

 to reload. M. fired, but was too far off, and missed. I now ran after the 

 bears. Boxer and Eosie had got one into a small side ravine, and great fun 

 was going on ; I knew they could keep him, so I ran on after the other and 

 larger bear — one of the largest females I have killed. I found her lying as 

 if dead, but I gave her another shot to make sure, when up she got and 

 bolted ; my left barrel stopped her for ever. When I got back the other 

 bear had died from his wounds, and the dogs were lying near him, panting 

 with heat and thirst, and nearly choked with hair and blood. 



Just as I was firing at the bear at the beginning of the brush I heard 

 M. call out something about a panther. It now appeared that, just before 

 I first fired, a large panther had been disturbed in the ravine, and had raced 



