BEAR-SHOOTING IN TRANSYLVANIA. 407 
and the sky was covered with grey clouds. We went out 
notwithstanding to make the same beats in the valley where 
two bears had been shot at on the 25th, and where the trackers 
had announced that there were fresh traces. 
The first beat taken on this occasion was the one nearest to 
the fields and the main valley, the guns being posted on the 
slope of the hill among the high wood and on the little 
meadows. Unfortunately we had a thoroughly bad wind, 
and so it happened that at the very beginning of the beat the 
last guns on the right wing heard a beast go by which they 
could not see, and soon afterwards a bear passed at a good 
speed and out of range in front of an old gentleman, Herr 
v. M. It did not, however, leave the beat, but crossed back 
into it over some meadows. 
In this wretched weather, with all the bushes dripping wet, 
the beaters drove badly, their line broke in the middle, and 
they came up to the guns a quarter of an hour too soon. 
Several of us were standing together at my brother-in-law’s 
post when there arose a great shouting on the left flank, and 
soon afterwards a large wolf coming from below burst through 
the assembled beaters and instantly vanished among the 
bushes. It passed so near to one of the men that he struck 
at it with his stick. 
We now tried another beat, but as the rain kept getting 
heavier, and the thoroughly drenched beaters came out of the 
cover in disconnected batches, we left off shooting and turned 
homewards. 
On the ist of October we decided to go after woodcock. 
The cold weather had driven them down from the hills, and 
there were certainly great numbers of them, for we found 
more than a hundred within a small area. Wherever one 
turned a woodcock got up; but untortunately the ground was 
still more hilly, and the difficulties of shooting and placing 
the guns still greater than on the first day; so that we only 
