102 THE HIMALAYAN BROWN BEAR. 



this bear is usually a yellowish or isabelline brown. In 

 some cases the shade is very much darker than in others, 

 and the long soft pile often has a silvery tinge on its 

 extremities, but its colour and length vary very much with 

 the seasons of the year. In the month of May the skin is 

 in splendid order, but later on in the summer it is not worth 

 the trouble of taking off. Although these bears often attain 

 a large size, some of them measuring as much as 7 feet in 

 length, and standing well over 3 feet at the shoulder, they 

 are not as a rule very pugnacious, although a cantankerous 

 customer may sometimes be met with. It is always un ad- 

 visable, however, to shoot at any kind of bear that may be 

 directly above one on a hillside, for the first impulse of a 

 bear on being hit is to rush or roll straight down-hill, and 

 whether the beast means mischief or not, it is apt, in its 

 night, to claw anything it may come across. Bears used to 

 be so common in the Cashmere mountains, and might be 

 got with so little trouble, that, when after ibex or suchlike 

 game, the sportsman seldom laid himself out much to shoot 

 them. 



We skinned the bear that had succumbed on the hill, 

 and then descended to the stream. With some difficulty 

 the other beast was extricated from his bath, and after a 

 like operation had been performed on his wet coat, we went 

 on to the place where we next intended to camp, farther up 

 the glen. 



The night came on stormy and boisterous, and next morn- 

 ing the surrounding heights were so coated with fresh-fallen 

 snow as to make stalking almost impracticable. About 

 noon, by which time the heat of the sun had melted most 

 of it off, we went out, and soon sighted a herd of eight or 

 nine ibex, but none of them were large old bucks. We 

 tried an unsuccessful, stalk over some abominably steep 

 snow-beds, where it would have been difficult to travel 

 without straw sandals, which give wonderfully firm footing 

 on steep rocky ground or hard sloping snow. These sandals, 



