HUNTING IN CHINESE TARTARY. 161 



the flesh, as most carnivorous animals do, he commences 

 sucking it, and in this way draws off the flesh in shreds, thus 

 occupying four or five hours in doing what a tiger or leopard 

 would effectually achieve in half an hour. It is well known 

 among the Tartars, and I know it also from experience, that 

 a bear, after feasting off flesh is a very dangerous customer, 

 and will always show fight. If near the carcass he has cap- 

 tured, he will give very little trouble in looking for him, in- 

 deed, he will almost invariably attack the intruder. One day, 

 while following up some wild sheep, I came upon two bears 

 very busily engaged in digging up the snow where an ava- 

 lanche had fallen. Being hid from their sight, I determined 

 to wait some little time to ascertain why they were digging. 

 I accordingly ensconsed myself behind a rock, and allowed 

 them to work away. In about an hour they made a very 

 good opening ; and on using my glass I found they had got 

 hold of something. I now pushed up to them. One imme- 

 diately showed fight, and came out to meet me. He made 

 one charge at me, which I rebutted with a rifle-ball, killing 

 him the very first shot. The other bear got away. On going 

 to the spot where they had been at work, I found the exhumed 

 dead bodies of three wild sheep. They had been carried 

 away and buried underneath the avalanche, probably as far 

 back as the previous year, considering the very compact and 

 frozen state the snow was in. The sheep were in excellent 

 order. We skinned them, and took them to our tents, and 

 excellent mutton we had for several days. 



On the melting of the snow, the golden eagle of the Hi- 

 malaya a magnificent bird, often measuring thirteen feet 

 from the tip of one wing to the other is one of the best of 

 pointers a sportsman can follow, to ascertain where any ani- 

 mal has been carried away by an avalanche. He hovers over 

 the spot, constantly alighting, and then taking wing again ; 

 but if once you observe him pecking with his beak you may 

 proceed to the spot, and be certain of finding, a very short 



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