AT CLOSE QUARTERS WITH BRUIN. 43 



loomed indistinctly on the crest of an open knoll close 

 above us ; but whether a stag or a hind we were unable to 

 make out, owing to the background of dark trees beyond it. 

 Although I could not discern the sights on the rifle, I 

 chanced a shot without them, and heard the unmistakable 

 sound that a bullet makes when it tells on flesh. The rest 

 of the herd went thundering away through the wood, where 

 it was too dense and dark to see them, although they must 

 have been within fifty yards of us. It was useless to look 

 for the wounded beast before daylight ; so we continued 

 our ascent. We had reached the top of the hill, and had 

 been examining the precipitous craggy slopes on the south 

 side for gooral, when one of my companions suddenly 

 crouched down, and, pointing with his finger, in an excited 

 whisper ejaculated the word Baloo ! On looking in the 

 direction indicated, there, sure enough, was a big black 

 bear clambering about among the rocks and grass about a 

 quarter of a mile off. He had evidently come out of the 

 forest on the north side, and as he was not far below the 

 crest of the ridge we were on, if he remained there only for 

 a short time I saw he could be easily stalked for a near 

 shot. We therefore retired quietly into the wood, and made 

 our way round through it as fast as the broken nature of 

 the ground would allow of. After some rough scrambling 

 and climbing, we reached the spot we had marked on the 

 ridge, where we judged we should find our friend Bruin 

 pretty close below us. I had crawled on to a ledge of rock 

 to look over, when I almost met the brute as he was 

 scrambling up the rocks en route for the wood, fortunately 

 without his seeming to observe me. I tried to cock the 

 rifle, but the hammers refused to move. Kurbeer and 

 Baloo Mar were endeavouring to make themselves as small 

 as possible behind me ; and the brave slayer of bears, seem- 

 ing neither to like such close proximity to Bruin nor to 

 understand my delay in firing, kept urging me, in a trem- 

 bling stage-whisper, to shoot. Meanwhile the bear had 



