12 BEARS. 



half a mile away, where they were duly marked down. 

 The beaters soon arrived at our alignment ; some of them 

 bore traces of former encounters with these very bears ; 

 they were woodcutters, and stated that, when engaged at 

 their occupation, they had been attacked by these brutes 

 without any provocation ; two had been terribly bitten 

 and clawed about the face and arms,* others had 

 escaped by climbing trees, or running away, and as 

 has been already stated several had succumbed to their 

 injuries. 



The ravine in which the bears had been marked down, 

 lay between two small, stony hills, studded with a few 

 straggling trees, devoid of foliage. These hills afforded no 

 cover, but the ravine contained some large boulders. It 

 joined the valley we had just left, some three hundred 

 yards further down. We were posted on the opposite 

 bank, and the beaters commenced to work from the top of 

 the nearer hill, taking the nullah cross-wise. The bears 

 showed at once, and tried to charge back through the line 

 of beaters, but were received with volleys of blank cartridge 

 and rockets, and such a terrific din, that they were gradu- 

 ally forced forward in our direction. Again and again did 

 they try to break back, but in vain. The beaters worked 

 splendidly ; their blood was up, and they were determined 

 to vanquish their foes, which were gradually pushed back 

 across the ravine on to the line of guns, passing me about 

 sixty yards off, heading towards Poulton, who was on my 

 right. He left his post, and came nearer to me to intercept 

 the bears, which he thought might have passed midway 

 between us, at rather a long shot distant from either post, 



* The poor wretches had had their arms nearly bitten off 

 above the elbow, and although the limbs had knitted in a 

 marvellous manner, they were quite useless. 



