AN UGLY CUSTOMER. 105 



the issue of events. Like pancakes we therefore continue 

 ito lie flat, merely raising our eyes carefully now and again 

 for a peep, until at length, as his strength fails him, he be- 

 jgins sliding slowly down the slippery incline. Immediately 

 he reaches our level, up we jump, and with a view to getting 

 well above him, take to our scrapers upward, for we can see 

 he is now too far gone to charge up-hill after us, though he 

 makes abortive attempts to do so. We can now shout to 

 the man below to bring up the ammunition by a circuitous 

 route, so as to avoid the bear, which is still quite capable 

 of doing damage down-hill, and on its arrival a quietus is 

 administered to this tough and ugly customer — a huge male, 

 and, I think, the biggest brown bear of the many I saw in 

 these mountains, and I am certain I never killed a larger. 

 We left the defunct brute as he lay, sprawling on the 

 snow, it being now too late that evening to perform his 

 obsequies. 



So much snow had fallen overnight, and was still falling, 

 on the heights above, that crossing the pass next day was 

 out of the question ; so, by way of employment, I accom- 

 panied the men who went to skin Bruin. We had hardly 

 set out when on came the snow again heavier than ever. 

 Nearly two inches must have fallen ere we returned from 

 our task, during which we nearly perished with cold. 



All day, and all that night, snow fell almost incessantly. 

 By morning it lay so deep that my little tent was half- 

 buried in it, and could scarcely support its weight. My 

 native followers had contrived to make themselves pretty 

 snug by constructing little huts of bent birch-boughs covered 

 over with birch-bark, and were doubtless warmer and more 

 comfortable than I was in my tent. Cashmerees generally 

 manage to keep themselves warm in the coldest weather 

 with their hangrees (small earthenware bowls covered with 

 basket-work), which they fill with red-hot ashes, and, when 

 either sitting or lying, place under the long sack-like gowns, 

 which are invariably worn by both sexes in Cashmere. 



