EXPERIENCES IN CENTRAL PROVINCES 95 



deer, and goodness only knows how many monkeys. And 

 they used all to be led after us on strings when we went 

 out for a round of golf in the afternoons ! 



The second cave was blank. But the one above produced 

 two more bears. One was lost, owing to our friend of the 

 baby-bear episode planting himself, unbeknown to me, in a 

 place of safety which was directly in the line of fire. 



The second bear we had nearly given up. All the crackers 

 and squibs were exhausted. Burning grass had no effect, 

 and I had just called out to the shikari that we would give 

 it up when without a sound a black form appeared at the 



mouth of the cave, hung there for an instant and made off 

 down-hill at its best pace. I had uncocked the rifle and 

 laid it down preparatory to getting off the rock I was on. 

 So the bear got a start. My bullet caught him far back and 

 the second missed altogether, but turned him so that he 

 took a more diagonal course. Picking up the Lee-Metford 

 I aimed well forward and rolled him over. But he was up 

 again and disappeared amongst some rocks. I did not 

 want to lose him if there was a chance of bringing him to 

 bag, so we hurriedly set off in pursuit. There was plenty 

 of blood on the trail and we were soon amongst some large 

 boulders, where circumspection was necessary, as none of 



