EUROPEAN BIG GAME 165 



elongated square, the guns being placed in line at the end 

 nearest the starting point. 



The approximate position of the bear having been indicated 

 in a hoarse whisper by Alexei Nicolaievitch, he proceeded to 

 post the guns. Having drawn lots before starting, as we do 

 at home when grouse or partridge driving, I was No. i, M. 

 Dumba No. 2, on my left, and Count Miinster No. 3, still 

 further in the same direction, at, I believe, about fifty yards apart. 



No. I has almost always the best of it, Alexei invari- 

 ably posting him, as he thinks, right opposite the bear. It 

 is from No. i that the army of beaters silently diverges, 

 making a large circuit right and left, and meeting again at 

 a point in the forest, perhaps a verst or more distant, far 

 in the rear of the bear, facing the line of guns. When 

 the wings of beaters meet, and the cordon is complete, the 

 whole set up an appalling shout ; the far side gradually ad- 

 vances until the area enclosed is reduced to about half its 

 original size ; then the beaters begin to draw inwards, shout- 

 ing, screaming, snapping off old guns, and rattling sticks. 

 After an interval of ten or fifteen minutes, according to the 

 nature of the ground and the temper of the bear, he or she, 

 as the case may be, begins to move, though sometimes the 

 creature positively refuses to stir, actually seeming to prefer to 

 be shot sitting. 



The yelping of a dog who had attached himself to our 

 party — a sort of stunted, wiry-haired, wolfish-looking collie — 

 ver)' soon gave notice that the bear was afoot, and she (for it 

 proved afterwards to be a she bear) appeared suddenly among 

 the trees right in front of me, about eighty yards off : a poor 

 harmless, distressed-looking object blundering along in the 

 deep snow. Bears move a great deal faster over the ground 

 than they seem to do, and having selected a convenient clearing 

 not twenty yards off as a good place in which to cover her, 

 I had not long to wait before she tumbled headlong into it 

 over the stump of a big tree. This sudden and unexpected 

 fall at the moment of firing rather disturbed my aim, and the 



