ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 261 



then came down a slope covered with clumps of bamboos, 

 and had he held on his course he would have come straight 

 at us. I was suggesting the propriety of not firing till he 

 was within a few yards of us, when the bear turned towards 

 our right and was going off. Eesting my rifle against a tree I 

 waited till he had cleared a thick mass of bamboo, and as his 

 head and shoulders appeared, I fired and the bear dropped. 

 The shot was a good one, for he was about 120 yards from 

 where we stood ; but my companions abused me for firing 

 when I had been urging them to refrain. However, I should 

 not have done so had the bear not turned. My shot had 

 only wounded him, and as he came blundering down the hill, 

 we ran in and finished him. 



We halted at this place another day, but heard of no game, 

 and as our respective duties called us in various directions, 

 we broke up the camp. I did my best to induce Baigrie to 

 join me, but he thought the Baroda country offered fairer pro- 

 spects of sport. I think he afterwards regretted his decision. 



On my return march to Sirdarpore I sent my men ahead 

 to mark game on the Vindyah hills, and on reaching my tents, 

 four miles from Tirla, I found that a couple of bears had 

 been marked. The grass had been burnt, and the ground was 

 perfectly bare throughout the jungle. 



On the side of a very steep slope, thinly studded with tall 

 trees, was a bit of rock scarped to the height of seven feet, 

 and extending some twenty yards along the face of the hill. 

 Under this rock were some holes, into which the bears had 

 gone in the early morning. We went very quietly down till 

 we reached the edge of the scarp, when one of the men point- 

 ing over showed me the snout and two fore-paws of a sleep- 

 ing bear protruding from a hole at the base of the rock. At 

 the mouth of this hole grew a peepul-tree, and the noise made 



