HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



river-bed (I was watching at the same old place) panting 

 and blowing, ran to the nearest water-hole, but only had 

 time for a few hurried sips when another vociferous bear 

 appeared making record time after it. Away the first one 

 went with startled " wuffs," and away went the other in hot 

 pursuit, with evidently fearful threats of vengeance if No. I 

 did not stop, for so I interpreted the blood-curdling yells 

 uttered by No. 2, and I was far too interested to think of 

 shooting. Farther down stream, but out of my sight, 

 pursuer caught the pursued, and then ensued such a pande- 

 monium as I have never heard before or since absolutely 

 beyond description. After a while one broke away and 

 rushed off into the jungle with plaintive little moans, whilst 

 the other, panting fit to burst, returned to the water for a 

 drink, where, I am rather ashamed to say, I shot it. Bears, 

 like every other jungle animal in Ceylon, are infested with 

 ticks, usually those of a large size, so the skins should be 

 left some distance away from camp until the abominable 

 creatures have removed themselves. We were always 

 taught in our youthful days that every creature on God's 

 earth has its use, but I confess I fail to understand the 

 usefulness of such beasts as ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, or 

 snakes ; we could very well dispense with them, I 

 think. 



It will probably be thought that the sound of a gun- 

 shot at a water-hole would alarm the country for miles 

 round, but in Ceylon that is not the case, as the sound is 

 deadened and swallowed up by the forest, only audible at a 

 distance as a dull sort of boom which animals seem to take 

 no notice of. As in the case of leopards, except for the 

 chance of an accidental meeting, the water-hole business is 

 the only certain way of getting a bear, and that fact, in my 

 opinion, makes the sport perfectly legitimate, not to men- 



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