BEATING FOR BEAR IN CHOTA NAGPUR 47 



proceedings took place. As the second cracker commenced 

 to detonate and reverberate inside a snarling growl arose. 

 Tingling with excitement and finger on trigger I waited. 

 Suddenly a black form appeared at the opening and shot 

 out. I fired. On the instant it turned and set upon a second 

 bear which had just reached the entrance. A free fight 

 took place, the first bear on being hit attributing the pain 

 to an act of his companion. A fight of this description 

 almost invariably takes place when two bears come out 

 together and one is hit. I think we all emptied two barrels 

 into the fighting black mass of fur, the only result being 

 that the bears parted ; one going off up the hill-side, the 

 other down. We all had twelve-bore guns loaded with 

 Mead shells as our second weapons. I saw both of A.B.C.'s 

 shells fired at the uppermost bear explode on the rocks, and 

 also my first. The second hit somewhere, but the bear 

 disappeared as A.B.C.'s great exasperating laugh came 

 down to me. " What on earth is the fool laughing at ? " 

 I thought. R. and F. knocked over the other one. We 

 retrieved the upper bear dead later on. It had five bullets 

 in it, in addition to my Mead shell which had struck it on 

 the pad. 



The main cave now lay before us, and here we fully 

 expected plenty of fun. Nor were we disappointed. I 

 should say that up to now, although at each cave we had 

 heard A. B.C. or rather his great laugh at frequent intervals, 

 he had not as yet taken any close part in the proceedings. 

 The only bear that had gone near him was one of the two 

 which came out of the third cave the one he fired the 

 Mead shells at. I may also add that none of us had ever 

 been out bear shooting with him before. 



The big cave had a wide cavernous mouth, out of which 

 a dozen bears could have charged abreast. There was also 

 a platform of considerable extent in front rising slightly 

 from the mouth of the cave to the far side. Midway 

 near the edge here was a small rock projection which formed 

 the post of the first rifle. A. B.C. installed himself thereon, 

 and the rest of us took up positions so as to cover all possible 

 avenues of escape, and with instructions to each choose a 

 bear and endeavour to kill him outright, an instruction of 

 perfection by no means easy to attain as has been shown 

 already. 



As soon as we were posted three men approached the 



