Charged by Bears. 



were, too, many of the horse flies about I had been troubled with 

 further east, they commencing operations the moment the sun 

 had warmed them into Hfe and activity. 



I started early on the morning of the i8th for the ibex seen 

 on the evening before. On the way up I came across a female 

 ibex feeding alone down in a hollow, some considerable distance 

 from my objective, and as we were in need of meat I shot it, 

 sending the carcase back to camp by a young Kazak whom I 

 had engaged as assistant to Rasul. 



It was a long climb of some 1,500 feet to the main ridge, 

 whence I hoped to work along on a level with the ibex, but for 

 some reason they were very restless, and in addition the wind 

 blowing from our direction caused them to disappear over the 

 crest. I then returned to camp, intending to try the ground to 

 the south-west on the morrow. 



I was off before 5 o'clock the following morning, riding part 

 of the way along a winding mountain track, used in spring 

 and winter by the nomads' flocks when they come up for the 

 pasturage. 



After going some distance I turned south along a bare rocky 

 valley about four hundred yards wide, at the higher end of which 

 we sighted two bears grazing on the eastern slopes. The wind was 

 right and the bears in a favourable position for a stalk, so we 

 tied up the ponies and went after them. On the way my Kalmuk, 

 by an elaborate demonstration with clawed fingers, accompanied 

 by sundry growling, endeavoured to illustrate to me the manner 

 in which Bruin would act if brought to bay, so I resolved to try and 

 account for them before they could for me. We were able to creep 

 up to within two hundred yards and from the cover of a rock had 

 a prehminary gaze at them. They were big beasts, one a red 

 and the other a black bear. The Kalmuk shikari was in a great 

 state of agitation and kept declaring they would charge us. 

 However, I pushed the Jeffrey-Mauser forward and, covering the 

 red one behind the shoulder, let drive. He gave a tremendous 

 jump and then stood still looking very sick. I rammed in another 



