Bears {Asiatic). 227 



spear, I ran after bruin and drove it through and 

 through him. He seized it in his mouth and turned 

 on me, but just then most opportunely another spear 

 was thrust into my hand, and I ran it several times 

 into his chest and at last made an end of my savage 

 foe ! My escape was most providential, I having got 

 off with only three slight wounds, two on the instep 

 and a deep scratch on the thigh ; this soon became 

 very painful, so I imagine the claws are somewhat 

 venomous. My three troopers, with most of my 

 shikaries and lots of villagers, were close at hand 

 while I was being mauled, and afforded me no assist- 

 ance, owing probably to their surprise. The former 

 said that they could not get their horses up to the 

 bear. This would appear to be the case, as through- 

 out the whole trip not one of the horsemen with me 

 drew blood from a bear, and most of these men were 

 plucky enough. One of the under tusks of this 

 formidable brute was buried in the heel of my boot, 

 and the other caught the stirrup. The upper tusks 

 went through the boot and some little way into my 

 instep in a slanting direction, so I got off better than 

 could be expected, and was only lame for ten or fifteen 

 days. Though very sore from my bites, the next day 

 I could not remain idle in the tents, so early in the 

 morning I went up to the rocks. A bear was seen 

 sleeping on the top of them, but heard us, and escaped 

 into a cave. We had just thrown in a cracker, when 

 another bear was seen quietly going past us. I fired 

 my heavy rifle (which I christened ' Wapping Poll ') 

 and the animal ran into a clump of rocks about 

 seventy yards off. He presently put his head out of 

 his den and looked at me in a most idiotic way ! I 



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