114 BEAR SHOOTING 



They were less than a hundred yards off, and still came on. 

 The light-coloured bear was by far the largest, and had 

 the best fur ; I would have him first. They were now 

 not fifty yards off, and Sharafa, who was lying close to me, 

 became so excited and insistent that I covered this bright- 

 coloured one, and hit him fairly behind the right shoulder. 

 At the crack of the rifle both the bears rushed up to my 

 right, turned and stood, and I again hit one in the left 

 shoulder. The light-coloured bear now rushed round the 

 slope out of sight, and the other bolted across my front 

 and then down the hillside to my left, standing for a 

 moment about two hundred yards off. I missed him with 

 No. 2, and he disappeared. The wounded bear, after going 

 about thirty yards, had collapsed and rolled down the hill. 

 After examining him I discovered I had made a most 

 stupid mistake : I had determined to plug the light-furred 

 one with the first barrel and the other with the second,, 

 and thought 1 had done so ; but when the slain bear was 

 skinned I found two bullet holes, one behind each shoulder, 

 exactly opposite each other — I had fired twice at the same 

 animal ! After the first shot they mixed in the rush, and 

 in the confusion I mistook the one already hit for the 

 unwounded one. As the holes appeared, it seemed as if 

 one bullet had gone right through. But this was im- 

 possible, for the Henry bullet always smashes up ; and in 

 this instance, both shots having been fired at rather an 

 acute angle from above, one bullet could not have gone 

 horizontally through the bear's shoulders. The broad head, 

 handsome fur, and immense size of the animal made a 

 splendid trophy. I was loth to have him skinned. His 

 head was the finest I had ever seen, and I was greatly 

 tempted to preserve it for setting up ; but to cut it off 

 would have been to spoil the skin. From the neck to the 

 point of the nose taped fourteen inches ; between the ears 



