254 SHORT STALKS 



remarkable part of it was that my brother never heard this 

 shot. Whether it was that he did not consciously distin- 

 guish it from the shots which the Ijeaters fired at intervals, 

 or that he was so intent on the baying of " Tembelle," who 

 was o1)viously pushing something in his direction, I do not 

 know, but so abrupt is the grooving of this mountain that 

 I have known more than one case of this puzzling pheno- 

 menon of smothered shots. The first w^arnino- of which he 

 was afterwards conscious was a scramblino; sound above, 

 followed by a Hying leap of some heavy body, and a crash 

 on the slope of loose stones where he was sitting. He had 

 fired his shot which had finished the Ijusiness, and the bear 

 lay dead before him Ijcfore he had fully realised that it was 

 a l)ear at all. It was a rather small bear, and had probably 

 been considerably disabled by the charge of shot, which 

 accounted for this rude and very clumsy descent. There 

 was more rejoicing among the peasants over the death of 

 this their enemy, than over a dozen ibex ; and as the pant- 

 ing beaters gradually assembled, they made the valley ring 

 again with cries of " L'Osso I L'Osso I " We ate a part of 

 this little gentleman, but he was less juicy than a Ijilberry- 

 fed cousin of his in Norway, into whose steaks I had had 

 the pleasure of sticking a fork some years before. 



Once more we thought we were in for a chance. The 

 way to our posts lay through the dense covert near the 

 base of a favourite drive, which we called "The Great 

 Chaos." There, in a muddy place on the narrow track 

 was the imprint of the characteristic plantigrade foot, so 

 fresh that the water was still oozino- into it. AVithout 

 stopping to scrutinise it too closely — what else but a bear 

 could have any business in such a place ? — we pressed on 



