BEAR-SHOOTING IN TRANSYLVANIA. 403 



We were standing on a road where there was not too much 

 room for shooting, when just at the beginning of the heat a 

 very large roebuck came to me ; but I of course allowed it to 

 pass, and soon afterwards two shots were fired in rapid 

 succession from the right wing of the line of guns. During 

 the last minutes of the drive I also heard something moving 

 rapidly about between my brother-in-law and myself, and 

 immediately the beaters made a terrific noise. Two wolves 

 were there which had probably winded the guns and pre- 

 ferred breaking back to going forward, although the beaters 

 were very close together. 



On hastening to the right wing I learnt that first Count N. 

 and afterwards Baron J. B. had let drive at a bear. Near the 

 place where the first shot had been fired we found a great 

 deal of blood, and close behind the line of guns lay the bear 

 itself, a dark-coloured animal, from two to three years old, 

 quite dead, with both balls planted in its shoulder. 



For the second beat we took a rather higher and thinner 

 wood, and again the guns stood on a somewhat narrow path. 

 In the middle of this drive a tolerably large grey bear again 

 came towards Count N., but changing its direction before he 

 could shoot at it, passed in front of Baron J. so covered by 

 the bushes that he was unable to fire. At last it sprang 

 across the path near young Herr v. M., who gave it a ball, 

 but unfortunately not in a fatal place. 



Towards the end of the beat a large bear broke by Count T. 

 at the narrowest place, where the thickets on each side only 

 left a small lane, so that he could get nothing but a very un- 

 certain shot, and probably either missed the animal altogether 

 or only wounded it slightly. 



We now determined to try the beat into which the bear 

 had crossed. This was the broadest on that long chain of 

 heights, and was connected with the great forest itself by a 

 somewhat thinly wooded ridge. On this ridge the guns were 



2D2 



