BEAR-SHOOTING 153 



I never saw again ; he wisely had mizzled quietly. 

 Scratched and torn I returned and set to work to skin 

 the bear, no joke now that the sun was up. In about 

 an hour and a half I had that skin off, and throwing it 

 round my neck and over my shoulders like a great lady's 

 boa (a nice bore I found it) I trudged off to camp. Ye 

 gods ! the heat ! it was perfectly unbearable ; I need 

 not hold forth on it. Thermometer over 100 degrees 

 and a bearskin for a necktie. IC Come what come may, 

 Time and the hour runs through the roughest day." 

 Accordingly I did get to camp but in a semi-live con- 

 dition. The very next morning I was again alone, and 

 as good luck would have it, came plump on the two 

 other bears. I killed one dead, and the other came 

 straight at me. I knocked him head over heels for 

 his impudence, but the shot was too hurried to be cer- 

 tain, and though desperately wounded he escaped. I 

 skinned the other bear, and catching a wild man made 

 him carry it to the camp for me. Curious creatures 

 these wild men are ; they live in trees and evince the 

 utmost terror at the presence of a white man. Small, 

 squalid, and dirty, they resemble monkeys more than 

 men. A few days afterwards I rolled over a very 

 large bear going at full speed, just like a hare. I have 

 kept some of their grease. 



Writing to his mother on iQth September 1863, he 

 alludes to the close of his sporting expedition and his 

 plans for the remaining three months that he intended 

 to spend in India. His original intention and the 

 natural wish of his relatives, was for him to return to 

 England in time for his coming of age in January ; but 

 he felt very strongly that if he left India without seeing 

 the most celebrated portions of it, he should always 

 regret it in after life. He says : 



To leave India as a mere sportsman with only a 



