pain 



Pelts 



gain, I missed with both barrels. So far as my 

 limited acquaintance with my companion's lan- 

 guage enabled me to do so, I understood him to say 

 that the bear was badly hit, and that we should 

 get him. I awaited the termination of the beat 

 in a state of wild excitement, and as soon as 

 permission was accorded I scrambled down from 

 the machan and we commenced a search for 

 blood. A drop or two was found, but that was 

 all, and after the expenditure of much valuable 

 time in deference to the excited wishes of the 

 tyro, for most of the rest must have known that 

 we should never see that bear again, as he was 

 probably only grazed, we went on to beat No. 2. 



My feelings will be understood by most sports- 

 men, and the lesson served me in excellent stead in 

 the future. I learnt one of the first fundamental 

 rules of the sportsman during a beat. Never let 

 your attention flag for a single instant, for if you 

 do, assuredly will you lose what will perhaps be 

 your one good chance of the day. 



I secured no bear that day. I had had and 

 lost my chance. Several were bagged, however, 

 and I scored up in my memory for future occa- 

 sions three facts : the first, that a bear appears 

 to be so much larger an object, and consequently 

 easier to hit, than he is in reality, owing to his 

 thick coat of long hair ; the second, that the 

 animal can come down a rocky hill with incredible 

 swiftness, bounding or rather rolling down from 



295 



