Bears (Asiatic). 241 



after this animal retreated into thickish jungle, so that 

 I could not easily get at him. At last I gave him a 

 desperate wound behind the shoulder, but he still ran 

 on, and the jungle became so dense that I could not 

 retain my view of him, more especially as ' Bull ' 

 suddenly became mute. I can't imagine how the 

 bear got away, but escape he did. I returned to the 

 hill, and found that Scott had finished my bear with 

 three more shots. While doing this, three bears rushed 

 out close to him, but luckily did not charge, so that he 

 was able to wound them all, having the greater part of 

 my battery at hand. The big female went into a den, 

 streaming with blood from various wounds, one of 

 them inflicted by ' Poll.' Scott also knocked a cub 

 off her back with a bullet, and the third bear also got 

 into the den. When I arrived, I found the female 

 crawling out of one of the dens, so shot her dead. 

 Having put lighted straw into the caves, out rushed 

 a bear. Both Scott and I wounded him, in fact he was 

 in chase of one of my coolies when I stopped him by 

 a two-ounce ball. The coolie in his fright fell with 

 his head against a rock, and remained senseless for an 

 hour or more. Bruin now ran round the rocks, and 

 Meer Saib hit him in the head, after which he got a 

 salvo from us. This rough treatment caused him to 

 make for a cave, down to the bottom of which I sent 

 him with ' Poll.' Upon the dead bear that was lying 

 in the cave he now turned his wrath, so I had to go 

 down into it with lighted straw to dispense the 

 coup de grace. This was objected to from a rifle, 

 so finally I had to crawl into the den, and finish him 

 off with my spear. On the coolies going to remove 

 the bodies, the remaining cub charged them, but was 



