BEARS & WATER-HOLE SHOOTING 



As bears were in the habit of drinking at some of 

 these holes, previous to the blocking of them, which were 

 on the opposite side of the rock to ours, I had taken with 

 me a tin of honey, with which I laid a trail from the 

 filled-up holes over to ours, as a bait, in case a bear 

 arriving at them should scent danger and flee, instead of 

 coming over to drink at our place. My friend Westland 

 was with me at the time, and we got on our stage about 

 5 P.M., having sent our men back to camp. At dusk 

 a bear came along in the jungle behind us, but scented 

 danger and did not show himself. About 8 P.M. a bear 

 came shuffling and snuffling over the big rock from our 

 left, not on my honey trail, which was over the right side 

 of the mound, and came towards the water-hole we were 

 sitting over. It stopped, in lovely position, to sniff at 

 something before reaching the water, and I fired at once, 

 with the result that the bear fled with hoarse yells and 

 grunts of alarm, my shot being a clean miss, and a fmost 

 inexcusable one, for I had, as far as 1 could see next 

 morning, miscalculated the amount of shadow thrown 

 by his body and aimed too low. 



Nothing more occurred until about 10 o'clock, and 

 Westland was having a snooze, when I heard the hoarse 

 breathing and snuffling of a bear over the other side of 

 the rock on my honey trail. I woke Westland, and we 

 both eagerly watched the summit of the rock, distant 

 about 80 yards from our stage. The snuffling got plainer, 

 and presently the bear appeared on the summit, looking 

 enormous against the sky in the bright moonlight, and, 

 to my huge delight, he was industriously licking his way 

 along my carefully laid honey trail. Down the sloping 

 rock he came, licking up every drop of honey, finally 

 arriving at the water-hole near which I had laid a large 



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