MEET A BROWN BEAR 55 



in May, After breakfast, and half an hour's rest, we went 

 along the hillside ; and after going some distance, and 

 getting low down, we heard a cry, which Sharafa said 

 was that of a very young bear cub. Soon after, we 

 sighted the mother and youngster very low down. We 

 at once went for them, but it was very difficult ground, 

 and we had to go slowly and cautiously. It now began 

 to rain and sleet ; the bears, too, began to move towards 

 us for a short distance, and then crossed to a slope on our 

 right. We waited for them to come up opposite us, when 

 they would have been only fifty yards off, but, unluckily, 

 they went straight along the hillside, and did not ascend 

 in our direction. Sharafa entreated me to fire when they 

 were a hundred yards off, but, feeling certain they would 

 come closer, I lost my chance. The wind was most un- 

 certain. The bears must have scented us, for we never 

 saw them again, though we followed their tracks at a good 

 pace, on fair ground, for some distance. This was very 

 disappointing, for the female was a very large one, and had 

 a splendid dirty-white coat ; the hair on her sides almost 

 touched the ground. The cub was half-grown. I was 

 very savage with myself for not taking my only chance of 

 a sliot. I was rather fagged now, and my left knee was 

 painful, as I had given it a bad knock in the hurry of 

 following the bears — it was the knee I smashed in an 

 exactly similar manner ten years before ; my feet also 

 were very sore from so many hours of continuous walking, 

 so we made for camp along a very rough and steep goat- 

 track. When we got round the shoulder of the hill, we 

 were in sight of, but still far above, the camp on the main 

 stream. Sharafa had seated himself to have a rest and to 

 examine the rocks, when suddenly he spied a large male 

 markhor among the cliffs on the right, about a thousand 

 yards off, above us a little and in a most impossible- 



