TROUBLESOxME " SILVERTIP " BEARS 



left. At the sight of me she changed her mind and 

 stood watching. The reason for this, I discovered, 

 was that the cub was following behind, and that had 

 she gone on I should have been practically between 

 her and her baby. Afterwards I found that it was a 

 very good thing she did not go on, for she might have 

 turned back and attacked me. As it was, she seemed 

 to think I was far too inquisitive concerning the cub, 

 and it was a distinct relief when Dick Randall joined me. 



I had good reason to be grateful to the tourist 

 who had given me the information about the bears. 

 Altogether I got some three hundred feet of film of 

 them, much of which was extremely interesting. The 

 mother was decidedly suspicious of us, although she 

 seemed to have no fear for herself, all her care being 

 for her young. Every now and then, when she thought 

 the latter was in danger from us, she would give him 

 a slap, chase him up a tree, then turn round and face 

 us, as much as to say, " Now come on — if you dare ! " 



After running off my film we went back to our own 

 camp and hurried on our packing, as we were anxious 

 to make up for the time we had spent over the bears. 

 The route to the next camping-ground led us past 

 one of the military posts, and on reporting myself there 

 the officer in charge showed me two " silvertip " bears 

 which had been shot the night before. They had 

 recently become savage, and it was no longer prudent 

 to let them be at large. Three more had just been 



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