BEARS & WATER-HOLE SHOOTING 



tion the unrivalled opportunities of studying the habits of 

 all sorts of wild creatures, yourself unseen. 



I remember, some years ago, during a trip with Tom 

 Wright, I had tramped with three men to a remote water- 

 hole 6 miles from camp, away in the forest, a deep little 

 pool of water in a dry river-bed, whilst Tom had gone to a 

 tank in another direction fairly near our camp. 



I and my men got to our scene of operations before 

 midday, and, after a look at the water-hole, whence a pig 

 scooted as we came up, the men retired to a bigger pool 

 about 100 yards away to cook some food for themselves. 

 The whole place was big forest, solemn in its twilight and 

 stillness, and when the men had gone I sat down on a tree- 

 root about 30 yards from the pool, down wind, of course, 

 just to be alone with Nature for a while. I was not per- 

 mitted to be alone for long ; in less than a quarter of an 

 hour and this was midday, mind you I saw a bear stroll- 

 ing down the river-bed to the pool. He never saw me, but 

 stopped conveniently about 5 yards from the water to sniff 

 at something, falling in his tracks to my shot, but uttering 

 such fearful yells that I gave him a second shot to finish 

 him. The men came running up at the sound, and to 

 avoid making tracks they waded through the pool and 

 dragged the bear through the water to my side, after blind- 

 ing the tracks with wet sand. We deposited the corpse 

 amongst the tree-roots at our end, and when the men had 

 fed we built our messa, or shooting stage, in a tree at a 

 height of fully 30 feet from the ground, as the trees round 

 about were devoid of convenient lower branches. 



We got on the stage at about i P.M., and then ensued one 

 of the most interesting afternoons I ever spent in the jungle. 

 Birds came in vast numbers, and it was intensely interesting 

 to watch their antics, hear their chatter and little alarms, 



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