JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 27 



Many of us had then never seen a wild bear, and our 

 excitement being- intense, we had invested the crea- 

 ture with a thousand more terrible attributes than ever 

 entered into the compositions of all the bears since 

 they disembarked after the Flood ; and if it had not 

 been for the extra glasses of "fire-water" that we 

 swallowed before leaving table, at the possibility of 

 falling a victim to bruin's killing affection, we cannot 

 possibly give a notion of what the state of our nerves 

 would have been, when the major, throwing up one 

 hand in the air (with the pistol in it) to enjoin silence, 

 came to a dead stop, and in a sort of articulation 

 between a whisper and a groan, ejaculated 



" Here's the very spot !" 



For hours did we in vain explore every hole and 

 corner, now looking up among the cocoa-nuts, and 

 then down into the rat and snake holes, but there 

 was not a vestige left, not even the ghost of a foot- 

 mark. 



After a very considerable space of time, as we were 

 starting on our way back to barracks, one of the 

 party stumbled across the stump of an old tree, around 

 which a fire had evidently once been lighted, which 

 had left it perfectly black ; and between two small 

 branches, sticking invitingly out at the top, we un- 

 doubtedly did discover the neck of a recently-broken 

 black bottle, the other part of which lay in fragments 

 around. 



The tree altogether had a disagreeably strong per- 



