A lil^ 



A NARROW ESCAPE 



Although bears are not in the same category with the 

 tiger or panther in point of danger to the sportsman, still 

 they afford excellent sport, especially in localities where 

 they can be attacked on foot. They are gregarious animals, 

 and I have often killed two or three of a family. 



When sleeping out on one occasion under one of the 

 mourah trees I have spoken of, I was suddenly awakened 

 during the night by an enormous bear, which had come in 

 quest of the berries, which, when ripe, drop to the ground. 



Drawing my revolver from under my pillow, I fired in 

 the direction from which the noise seemed to be proceeding 

 and heard the animal moving off. WTien morning dawned, 

 however, we found his broad footprints within a few yards 

 of my bed ! 



On another occasion, too, I had a very narrow escape 

 from one of these animals at a place called Warangaon, in 

 Khandesh. I had wounded a very large bear, and in my 

 eagerness to get him, ran after him down a steep hill, 

 when suddenly he turned and nearly got me round the 

 waist. 



I managed, however, to put a bullet into him just in 

 time, but so close was he that his hair was singed all over 

 the chest with the flash from my rifle. He was finished 

 off by my men, who fortunately came up at this moment. 



Hearing of some bears once at a place called Chappani, I 

 moved my camp there. The men who had preceded me 

 the night before, had marked down one of these bears in 

 a mass of broken rocks on the side of a hill. 



I was posted on a narrow path on the side of a steep 

 slope, covered with high grass and reeds, leading to the 

 rocks amongst which the bear was said to be lying. 



Soon I heard the shouts of the beaters, and presently 

 saw the bear, a very large male, coming towards me. The 

 path, as I have said, was a very narrow one, and as there 

 was no room for the animal to pass me, I allowed him to 

 come up to within ten paces and then fired, the shot striking 

 him in the centre of the chest, sent him rolling down the 

 hill, where he was picked up, quite dead. He was a huge 

 animal, enormously fat, with a fine, shaggy coat. 



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