16 BEARS. 



shikari, and finally despatched by Poulton, who put a 

 bullet through his heart as he was crossing him, at a range 

 of about eighty yards. We held a post mortem on him 

 and found twenty-one lobes on his liver, and as the natives 

 say that each lobe means a year, this was a regular veteran, 

 a fine male bear about 6 feet 8 inches long. 



At Loashera in the Neermul district, we had great 

 fun with a bear one morning. It was Manley's turn to 

 fire, I being in support, and the brute was taking his siesta 

 in the cleft of a huge rock, under the shade of a kino tree. 

 We stalked up quietly to within twenty yards, when he 

 suddenly got up and peered out at us ; his white snout 

 caught my eye, but Manley could not see him, nor would 

 he let me fire. The result was, that the bear retired 

 further into the cleft, and, bolting from the far side, was 

 150 yards away before we again sighted him, as he lobbed 

 across some open ground towards an isolated cluster of 

 rocks half a mile off. We both fired, and one shot lamed 

 him slightly, but on he went. Our horses and spears were 

 not far away, so we shouted for them, and then ran after 

 the bear as hard as we could. Knowing he was steering for 

 the cairn, we took a short cut, and he was not very far 

 ahead of us when he reached it and rushed in. This was 

 followed by a great turmoil inside, guttural growls, and 

 roars, and shrieks of the bear, and it was evident that a 

 rough and tumble fight was going on with some savage 

 occupant who was in previous possession. We had by 

 this time arrived close to the rocks, the subterranean 

 conflict suddenly ceased, and out dashed a large panther, 

 which, bounding over some rocks, caught sight of Manley, 

 and crouched close to him, watching him as a cat does a 

 mouse. At first it appeared to be a tiger, about to spring 

 on Manley, who was quite unconscious of his danger, so I 



