WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



from other tourists, or perhaps he was very hungry. 

 Anyway, when he had made certain that we had left 

 no stray food-stuffs outside he began to waddle round 

 the tent and sniff at the canvas. Then, finding that 

 of little avail, he started to scrape up the earth, 

 choosing the very place where I was lying. He 

 seemed to know that we had plenty of provisions 

 in the tent, and was bent on sampling whatsoever 

 he might discover. 



I did not like that bear. I admit as much frankly. 

 He was a pertinacious beast and wandered round and 

 round our tent, sniffing first under one corner of 

 the canvas and then under another. Once or twice 

 we heard him making a critical examination of our 

 buggy ; so I decided to have a light. This seemed to 

 disconcert him, for when we opened the flap of the 

 tent — opened it with due caution, for there was the 

 chance of a pat on the head, delivered in sledge- 

 hammer style — he was just shuffling off, toes turned 

 inwards, in clumsy, frumpish style. We thought he 

 had gone away empty-handed, but in the morning, 

 some fifty or sixty yards from the camp, I found a 

 pound tin of tobacco of mine. He had tried the taste. 

 His teeth had gone into it as clean as a bullet would 

 have done ; but apparently he did not chew tobacco, 

 so he had tossed it aside in disgust. The discovery 

 lowered my opinion of him. Obviously he did not 

 know when he was on a good thing. He was a crank 



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