BEATING FOR BEAR IN CHOTA NAGPUR 33 



the smallest bush or patch of low grass, and moonlight is 

 at best very deceptive. Moreover, I had not yet acquired 

 much of a jungle eye for night work. 



What glorious days those were as an Assistant, before one 

 reaUzed fully that responsibihty had to be shouldered and 

 that Hfe was not all shoots with the work sandwiched in 

 between ! 



Arrived at K. I started on the inspection. The terrain 

 of the day's business consisted of a steep rocky hill covered 

 with low stunted sal trees, here very different in appearance 

 from the same species of tree when growing in the great 

 reserves to the south-west. But the rocks, piled up in 

 tumbled masses, formed caves of varying size, affording 

 magnificent residences for bear. These rocky scrub- 

 covered hills, which were plentiful in the more open parts 

 — the agricultural parts — of this district, were in fact ideal 

 homes for bruin, and gave shelter to innumerable families of 

 the common sloth bear {Ursus lahiatus) or bear of the plains. 

 We used to say that they were as plentiful as blackberries 

 in those days, and with very little difficulty great sport, 

 often accompanied by ludicrous incidents, could be enjoyed. 

 In fact some of the sportsmen of the district, those not 

 officially connected with the great forests, had numbers to 

 their credit. That my own bag was small in my Assistant's 

 da3^s was primarily due to the fact that my work lay in the 

 large jungles to a great extent, and that I was bitten with 

 the " bison fever " rather badly. Whenever I consistently 

 could, and whilst still an Assistant one's conscience is some- 

 what elastic perhaps, my energies were devoted to bison. 



The black bear of the plains of India is a far more sport- 

 ing beast than his Himalayan confrere with whom I sub- 

 sequently had numerous encounters. The bear of the plains 

 is both plucky and aggressive as the native well knows. It is 

 not an uncommon sight to meet a villager with one half of 

 his face or his shoulder scarred in an unsightly manner owing 

 to an unpremeditated encounter with a bear. As the latter 

 is about six feet long and three feet high, when standing up 

 on his hind legs, a practice to which he is much addicted, he 

 stands some seven feet high to the crown of his head, and is 

 then an ugly customer to meet unless one is suitably armed. 

 And he will carry a lot of lead unless shot in a vital place. 

 From the point of view of danger he is not to be com- 

 pared to tiger, leopard, much less a wounded bison, or a 



