A SHE-BEAR TO THE RESCUE. 15 



The black bear of the Himalayas is not so pugnaciously 

 inclined as its concoloured relative the sloth-bear (Ursus 

 labiatus), which inhabits the hilly districts and jungles of 

 other parts of India. The latter animal is a cantankerous 

 brute, that will often attack on the slightest provocation, and 

 sometimes seemingly out of mere " cussedness." Whereas 

 the former generally tries to escape if possible, even when 

 wounded, and seldom shows fight except as a last resource, 

 or in defence of its cubs. 



I have killed and wounded many a bear, but can only 

 remember one instance, and that rather a mild one, to 

 record of my having been regularly charged by a black 

 Himalayan Bruin. 



One evening I had discovered a she-bear and her half- 

 grown cub up an oak-tree growing just below the brow of a 

 steep hillside. But the old one had already detected me 

 below, so, leaving her offspring to take care of itself, she 

 quickly cleared out of the tree, and, before I could get a 

 shot at her, had disappeared over the brow. The youngster, 

 not being quite so knowing, took longer in getting down, 

 and so gave me a chance of putting a bullet through his 

 hide, which made him " tune his pipes " pretty loudly, and 

 sent him scampering away down the hill. The cub's cries 

 of distress soon brought its mother back over the brow to 

 the rescue, when she came tearing down the steep slope 

 straight for me, grunting out her wrath in a most savage 

 manner. I waited until she was within fifteen yards or so, 

 and then gave her the contents of the second barrel. This 

 at once doubled her up, her impetus causing her to tumble 

 heels over head close past me. After rolling some way 

 down the hill, she recovered her legs, struggled on a short 

 distance, and then fell to rise no more. I never found out 

 what became of the bereaved cub, but in all probability it 

 did not long survive its dam, as it was hard hit. 



On moonlight nights a shot may sometimes be got by 

 watching places where the bears come to feed on the crops 



