44 TRACKING A WOUNDED JURROW. 



reached the crest, and was moving along within a few paces, 

 just below us, beside the ledge of rock we were on, and 

 still, strange to say, without detecting us, or the consequences 

 might have been unpleasant ; for we were now between 

 him and the precipice, and a tussle with Bruin under 

 existing circumstances would have been decidedly in his 

 favour. At this juncture it suddenly struck me that in my 

 flurry I had forgotten to remove those worse than useless old 

 appendages, the so-called " safety "-bolts, from the hammers. 

 I had only just time to withdraw them, and to give the brute 

 a slanting shot behind the shoulder, before he disappeared 

 with a grunt down among the trees on the back slope of the 

 hill. "Ne lugga !" (not hit,) exclaimed Baloo Mar, jumping 

 up most pluckily now that all possible chance of danger 

 was over. Kurbeer and I, however, thought otherwise ; so, 

 after reloading, we commenced tracking, and soon found the 

 long grass bespattered with blood, which increased in quan- 

 tity until we found the bear, a large male, lying stone-dead 

 about three hundred yards down the hill. But the bear- 

 slayer was determined to make sure that there was no pos- 

 sibility of doing harm left in the animal ; for he flung 

 several stones at its carcass, and also took the precaution 

 to repeatedly prod at it with his long stick, at arm's-length, 

 the while heaping a variety of abusive epithets on the de- 

 funct beast, before venturing to go nearer it. 



After covering the dead bear with boughs and long grass 

 to hide it from the eagles and vultures, we made for the spot 

 where I had wounded the jurrow. But after tracking it for a 

 long distance, we eventually lost all sign of it in the thick 

 forest to which it had betaken itself. The afternoon was 

 spent in skinning the bear, and removing and boiling down 

 the grease, of which the beast had a pretty thick layer on its 

 broad back. 



The early part of next day was devoted to the gooral. The 

 only one I shot at fell down a considerable distance among 

 the crags, so I sent Kurbeer after it. On his return with it, 



