ON THE WEST COAST OF CEYLON. 97 



grappled with him, and they waltzed round and round 

 biting and clawing savagely. Meanwhile, I afforded 

 them an accompaniment to their dance by emptying 

 my rifle three times into the pair. At last one dropped 

 dead, and the other after sniffing at him moved slowly 

 off, I firing my last two cartridges at him as he went. 

 We descended the tree, and I sent Jim Crow off for 

 the carts. When these arrived, I got some fresh 

 cartridges, and accompanied by Will in pyjamas and 

 slippers, and by Jim Crow with a lantern, we proceeded 

 to look for bear number two. I need hardly say we 

 proceeded cautiously, for a Ceylon bear in the daytime 

 and unprovoked is a dangerous beast, so what would he 

 be wounded and in the dark ? However, our caution 

 was unnecessary, for a score of yards away we found 

 him also dead. Having seen him put in the baggage 

 cart we turned in and soon dropped off, to the ac- 

 companiment of creaking axles, and the " Dah ! dah ! "* 

 of the drivers. 



I may here add that when we came to examine the 

 bears next day, we found one bear had been hit by 

 two bullets and one by three. This gives an average 

 of 50 per cent, of hits at about seventy yards. I 

 should call this a good average in the dark, and this 

 explains (with the discomfort) why this night work is 

 so unpopular with sportsmen. Sitting up means 

 certain discomfort, possibly no game seen, and very 

 flukey shooting if it is dark, whereas if there is a moon 

 it is almost worse. 



* The Ceylon bullock drivers' equivalent for " Come hup." 



H 



