BEARS & WATER-HOLE SHOOTING 



watch, so the officer elected to remain on the ground instead 

 of up a tree, much to the disapproval of his tracker. I think 

 the gentleman had on an overcoat, which was rather lucky, 

 and, also, he must have been anything but wide awake, 

 for a bear came out behind him and went for him properly, 

 knocking him about a good deal, but the coat saved him 

 any serious damage. The bear, I think, eventually ran off 

 and left him. 



A much more serious case happened to a plucky sports- 

 woman, wife of a well-known and popular sporting Govern- 

 ment official. 



This lady was as keen on sport as her husband, and 

 an excellent shot, but the incident I am about to relate 

 would have shaken the nerve of many a man, and no one 

 could have shown greater courage under the circumstances 

 than she did. 



The official was on circuit at the time, accompanied 

 by his wife, and they were in camp inspecting some tank- 

 repairing work, which was being done by the Irrigation 

 Department. News was brought of bears amongst some 

 rocks near a tank about 3 miles away, and the lady went 

 off very early one morning, I think, to have a look for 

 them, accompanied by a police orderly, one Singhalese 

 headman and one Tamil headman, her husband being too 

 busy to come with them. Arrived at the rocks, they took 

 up their position on a flat slab between two big rocks 

 commanding a view of a cave or hollow among a medley 

 of rocks below them, and had not been there long when 

 they saw a bear walk past their front and disappear among 

 the boulders. They then waited for the bear to return 

 to the cave, and the lady was sitting well back on her 

 slab of rock, when suddenly, without any warning, a bear 

 rushed up from behind, knocked her over on her face at 



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