276 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



kills him ; but these bears — and here he applied to them 

 a most insulting epithet — if they meet a man, will 

 mutilate and leave him. Of the truth of this statement 

 I soon after had a sad illustration. I met a villager 

 being led by another. He seemed ill, and one side of 

 his face was concealed by a cloth. I inquired what was 

 the matter. In reply he lifted the cloth, and displayed 

 a terrible spectacle. The entire face, eye, cheek, and 

 skin, was gone. Nothing remained but one great half- 

 healed scar. 



He had gone to cut wood in the forest above his 

 village. There a bear attacked him. These bears of 

 the Himalaya, I should mention, do not hug, as the 

 bears of Europe are said to do ; they bite, or they 

 rise on their hind legs and strike with their forepaw. 

 This bear did so. He rose, and with his front paw 

 struck the man on the head. The claws tore away the 

 face. How the man escaped I forget ; I suppose that 

 either the bear left him, or that he had companions 

 that drove it off. 



During the hot season the bears mostly reside in the 

 valleys and on the lower slopes of the mountains. As 

 the cold weather approaches they ascend to the summits, 

 and there for the winter they remain. They come up 

 to feed on certain fruits and berries that they then 

 find in the higher forests. The bears that come near 

 Mussoorie occasionally enter the station ; at least, in 

 my time they did. They not only entered the station, 

 but, when the fancy took them, they would visit the 

 houses. Their visits were usually paid at night, and 

 mostly to houses that were empty — of which at that 



