BEAR-SIIOOTING IN THE OAK-TREES. 13 



the ravine, which becomes narrower and more free from 

 bushes. 



The business now gets pretty exciting, and not altogether 

 free from the danger of stray bullets, as we all go scrambling 

 along over the rough, uneven ground on either side, firing 

 shots whenever an opportunity offers, but seemingly with little 

 eftect. At last I manage to get a fair chance at the brute's 

 broad back, about twenty yards off, as he attempts to climb 

 the opposite bank, when a bullet between the shoulders brings 

 him rolling down into the water. At the same moment my 

 foot slips into a deep hole hidden by long grass, and down I 

 go, giving my knee such a painful wrench that I take little 

 more heed of the bear. Even had he been able to show fight, 

 I was almost hors de comhat But this shot had finished him, 

 which was some little compensation for being laid up for 

 many days after. 



In localities where oak-forests abound, perhaps the pleas- 

 antest if not the best time for shooting these bears is in the 

 month of December, when they wax fat on acorns, which 

 are then ripe. They generally commence feeding about sun- 

 set, when they climb up the oak-trees and gorge themselves 

 with acorns all night, often not betaking themselves to their 

 lairs — which are generally either caves or thickets near their 

 feeding-ground — until some time after sunrise. Their where- 

 abouts is easily discovered from the broken branches showing 

 distinctly against the dark foliage of the trees, the back of the 

 leaf of the Himalayan oak being white. At the commence- 

 ment of the acorn season their attention is so much engaged 

 with their feast that usually they are easily approached. But 

 on suddenly finding themselves " treed," their astonishment 

 is sometimes ludicrous to behold. 



Early one morning I was strolling along a ridge command- 

 ing a view of a wide deep hollow, filled with oaks and thick 

 underwood, keeping a sharp look-out for sign of Bruin, and 

 occasionally stopping to listen for the snap of a branch. 

 Suddenly the wished-for sound was heard away down in the 



