STORMY WEATHER. 131 



cropped down by bears as if cattle had been grazing on it. 

 The colour of 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 cantan- 

 kerous customer may sometimes be met with. It is always 

 unadvisable, 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 

 flight, 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 unsuc- 

 cessful 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 



