64 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



on the ground. He then cut boughs of trees, and, having 

 covered up the beast, returned to the tent to procure men to 

 carry it in. 



A party of our coolies at once set off with him, but on ar- 

 riving at the spot where the bear had been left, they found it 

 had disappeared. The boughs lay scattered about, and marks 

 of blood were on the ground, but the bear was gone ; and it 

 being now quite dark, the men came back and reported matters 

 to us. We of course conjectured that the bear had only been 

 stunned and badly wounded by the Shaik, and had managed 

 to recover sufficiently to get away among the dense bush, 

 which on all sides surrounded the spot. The Shaik, however, 

 who was a man of long experience, and skilled in all matters 

 of woodcraft, assured us that he had left the bear dead, and 

 he believed some beast must have carried it off. It was too 

 late to do anything then, so we settled to go out at daybreak 

 and clear up the mystery. 



The jungle-cocks were crowing in the ravines when we 

 turned out in the morning ; and after a light breakfast we set 

 off for the spot whence the bear had disappeared. 



As the men had reported, we found the boughs strewed 

 about and much blood on the ground, but the daylight enabled 

 us to see that the carcass had been dragged along the ground, 

 so we prepared to follow up the track. For some distance it 

 led through the open glade, through which the Shaik informed 

 us the bear had advanced just before he shot it ; after this, it 

 went through some thick scrub jungle, and then along the 

 stony bed of a dry watercourse. 



Here the jungle became very thick, and the thorns and 

 branches were so interlaced across the bed of the stream that 

 we were obliged to stoop, and at times to crawl along on all 

 fours. We were about 500 yards from where the bear had 



