I90 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



hand. Never will the writer forget seeing a lot go off in a how- 

 dah during a tiger beat : the poor old elephant went streaking 

 across country like a glorified comet. Two guns are ample 

 for following up a wounded bear on foot in jungle ; if there 

 are more the party is apt to get separated, and then, if the 

 bear shows sport, there are too many bullets flying about to 

 be pleasant. Natives, except perhaps one tracker, are only en- 

 cumbrances. The way a cub -will ride on its mother's back and 

 keep its seat under the most trying circumstances is marvellous. 

 The writer once rolled an old bear clean over without the cub 

 letting go. Sterndale quotes a capital story about this. Rusty 

 coloured bears are not uncommon : the writer saw two in 

 Central India, but as in each case the bear passed under his 

 tree before the tiger in the beat had been fired at, he had to 

 spare them. Bears may occasionally be ridden down and 

 speared, but they are not often found on ground that will admit 

 of this, and the way they ^ sU?ig their chat' \i\\\^x^-w^x\\ most 

 horses from going up to them. This bear does not hibernate. 

 Colonel Howard gives the following account of his experi- 

 ences in Central India in 1884 : 



L. and I were at Lulliapoora tying up for a tiger, and hearing 

 of some bears' caves about two miles off, we rode out to look at 

 them. On arrival at the ground we dismounted and strolled along, 

 accompanied by a couple of villagers. Whenever we found a cave we 

 rolled rocks down into it to see whether it was. occupied or not, and 

 having gone on in this way for some time without result, the natives 

 began to get careless and went ahead of us. Presently we heard 

 some growls and saw our Aryan brethren scuttling up trees. L. and 

 I ran forward and found a large crevice in the rocky ground about 

 four feet wide, eight or ten yards long, and from fifteen to eighteen 

 feet deep ; at either end of this caves seemed to run into the 

 ground, and in the centre was a ragged archway that formed a 

 staircase for the bears to climb in and out. Standing astride of 

 the crevice I saw a bear's head appear at the entrance of one of 

 the caves, and as L. was new to the work, I signalled to him to 

 come and shoot, while I stood a foot or two back from the edge, 

 ready for whatever might turn up. The bear, noticing L., turned, 

 and, on receiving a bullet in his seat of honour, ran along the 



