SUBALPINE REGIONS 173 



pointing the rifle up to the bees' nest, and waited to hear 

 the sound or catch sight of the great black object where 

 I guessed a bear would be, I suddenly heard close behind 

 me a sniffing sound, just at my rear, and felt the hot 

 breath of a huge bear as I swung round the rifle pretty 

 sharply and let drive. There was no bear there after that, 

 but next morning there were some very large bear tracks 

 on the path, and the bees were in a state of immense 

 excitement, and half their nest gone. There were big 

 claw-marks on the tree-stem, but Bruin had not com- 

 pleted his robbery of the honey, but had scuttled off 

 down the khud in the dark night. 



The female bear sometimes suckles her young in a sitting 

 position, like a biped, and her correction of her infants 

 by giving them a sound box on the ear when they are 

 disobedient, and scolding them in an angry, loud manner, 

 is splendidly like the method of some impatient mothers. 

 The young bears, of which there may be two or three, 

 cry just Hke infants when corrected, and squabble and 

 play together in a very human manner. I had several 

 young bears at different times, which had been caught by 

 natives by putting blankets over them, and brought to the 

 cutcherry for the reward. They soon became tame and 

 were very amusing, but were always ready to use their 

 sharp nails in self-defence. If threatened with a stick, 

 they would invariably put their backs against a wall or 

 tree, and stand up like a pugnacious boy and box with 

 their hands open, striking inwards at a furious rate. 

 Nothing can resist the scooping, clawing stroke of a bear's 

 heavy and powerful arms, delivered alternately on the 

 object of his attack. A bear does not hug, as popularly 

 supposed, but when he stands up whatever comes between 

 his claws is literally made mincemeat of. There were 

 many poor wretched natives in these high-up villages 



