TIIK OLD DOG DEAR AND HIS WIFE. 



IO9 



deliberately tumbling head over heels, again running three or 

 four paces and another somersault, and so on. Mrs. B. who 

 had got on some little distance in front turned back and came 

 up the hill again, whether to charge me or assist her spouse 

 I know not, but his extraordinary method of coming clown 

 the hill appeared so to astonish her that she turned tail and 

 rushed into the shola. I waited for him to stop and give me 

 a fairer shot than the round ball he was making of himself, 

 but he would not, so I fired just as he entered the shola. 

 Francis said I hit him, but I doubt it, as his mode of entering 

 the shola was so absurd that I was unsteady from laughing. 

 Instead of going nose first as a bear ought to do, he entered 

 head over heels exactly as the harlequin at a pantomime 

 would disappear through the wall of a house. As soon as he 

 got well into the wood he sat down and began roaring most 

 piteously, every roar being answered by a large black 

 monkey. As it was getting dark we had not time to make 

 much of a search so we gave it up. Francis was quite 

 certain that we should find him in the morning, but we did 

 not and never saw him again. 



It seems to be a peculiarity with bears, at any rate with 

 the Indian bear, that they must always bite something when 

 they are wounded. One day I was out looking for a tiger 

 when I came across an old bear sitting up busily scratching 

 herself. I stalked close up to her (a little over twenty 

 yards), by which time she had commenced feeding again, so 

 I waited till she turned towards me when I dropped her 

 with a ball between the shoulders. However, up she 

 got, and began singing out most lustily, so I gave her 

 another which broke her fore leg, when she instantly seized 

 and crushed it to pieces, I could hear the bones breaking. 



