184 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



the river, were considerable patches of cultivation. On the 

 north bank of the river could be seen the town of Mheysur, 

 and four miles higher up, the small but pretty British 

 station of Mundlaisir, the head-quarters of the political agent 

 in Nimar. Beyond the Nerbudda, the country presented 

 features similar to those on the north side ; jungle and cul- 

 tivation intermixed, the more distant portions of the land- 

 scape increasing in elevation, till the horizon was bounded 

 by the portion of the Sathpoora mountains lying between 

 Sindwah and the hill-fortress of Asseerghur. 



As we sat, Bappoo and another man had moved along the 

 face of the hill some thirty yards, and were examining a 

 cave when a bear rushed out on them. Bappoo fired, but 

 missed, and the bear, greatly alarmed, went straight down the 

 hill. Snatching up my rifle, I sprang forward and got a snap- 

 shot at the rapidly-descending brute. My bullet struck him 

 somewhere behind the shoulder, killing him dead, and he fell 

 over an almost perpendicular rock, twenty feet in height. 

 Bappoo had a narrow escape, as, had the bear grappled with 

 him, they must have gone down together, and he could hardly 

 have escaped with his life. We had some difficulty in taking 

 the beast up from the mass of rocks among which he had 

 fallen, but the Bheels cut two stout poles, to which he was 

 slung, and so carried to the tent, where we proceeded to skin 

 him and boil down the fat. 



I went out in the afternoon in quest of sambur, but saw 

 none. The berry-like flower of the mowa trees was falling, 

 and the wives and children of the Bheels were busy picking it 

 up from the ground. Their presence in all directions through 

 the forest was not conducive to sport. 



The produce of the mowa forms an important item of 

 Bheel domestic economy. The tree is one of the handsomest 



