368 ■ MODES OF HUNTING BEARS. 



in jungle, or sitting over his cave at daybreak and shooting him on his 

 return from his night's wanderings if his quarters are amongst rocks. In 

 the forests about IMorhay I always shot bears by following them with 

 trackers. As they seldom ceased feeding in wet weatlier before 9 a.m., if we 

 hit off a trail early in the morning we could generally catch the animal up 

 before it retired for the day. There were no caves of any magnitude, and 

 the bears were generally found lying under the shelter of a rock or baml )00- 

 clump, if not overtaken whilst yet afoot. Tracking is most easy in Septem- 

 ber and October, when the grass is about two feet high and the dews heavy. 

 A bear leaves a very plain trail througli this. 



PART ir. INCIDENTS IN BEAR-SHOOTING. 



Bear-shooting is one of the most entertaining of sports. .Some sports- 

 men have spoken disparagingly of it, and I daresay sitting up half the night 

 watching for a bear's return to his cave, and killing him without adven- 

 ture, may be poor fun. I have never myself tried it. But bear-shooting 

 conducted on proper principles, with two or three bears afoot togetlier, 

 lacks neither excitement nor amusement. It is not very dangerous sport, 

 as the animal can be so easily seen, whilst he is not so active as a tiger or 

 panther. Still he is very tough, and to any one who would value him for 

 liis demonstrations he would appear sufficiently formidable. If a bear 

 charges he can generally be killed without more ado by a shot in the heail 

 when within two paces. The belief that a bear rises on his hind-legs when 

 near his adversary, and thus offers a shot at the horse-slioe mark on his 

 chest, is groundless. I have shot several bears within a few feet, and they 

 were still coming on on all-fours. No doubt when a bear reaches his man 

 he rises to claw and bite him, but not before. Nor do they hug an 

 adversary with intent to crush him. I have had satisfactory demonstration 

 of tliis in hunting them with dogs. 



One of the best days I ever had with bears was on the 5tli ^May 1874. 

 Perhaps I should rather say one of the most productive days, as the sport 

 itself was tame in comparison with other adventures I have had M'itli 

 tluun. I had been encam])ed in the I'oonjoor jungles since the 1st; three 

 days had been unsuccessful ones, and on the fom-th I had only killed one 

 bear out of a family of three encountered. I had lost the other two en- 

 tirely through tlie villanous conduct of some untrained gun-bearers. One 

 of these, who l)ore a in-ominent ]>art in tlie misconduct, excused himself 

 afterwards by saying he really liardly knrw in his perturbation wliich was 



