MOSTLY ABOUT BEARS 161 



mushroomed core of my Express bullet was 

 found in the bear's heart, and a small piece of the 

 bullet in the hide on the far side. The shikari's 

 bullet had gone through the bear's heart by the 

 hole made by my bullet, and had passed out of 

 the animal. We had both fired at the same angle, 

 but that we should both have made perfect 

 bull's-eyes at a galloping animal and hit it in 

 exactly the same place was an extraordinary 

 coincidence. 



My next encounter with a bear was an exciting 

 one. I was marching in the Balaghat district 

 of the Central Provinces in the cold weather of 

 1907-9 with a small camp ; and for several 

 days I had preceded my two carts in the hope of 

 meeting sambur on the road at dawn. At that 

 time I had not shot a good sambur stag, and was 

 very anxious to do so. On one particular morning 

 I was late, and the cook's cart started off a minute 

 or two before I was ready. Almost immediately 

 the men came running back to say that a splendid 

 stag was standing on the road, but, of course, 

 by the time I arrived at the place he had gone. 

 I was much annoyed and was strolling along 

 feeling decidedly sulky, when one of the men 

 from the camp behind me ran up to say that there 

 was a bear in the open plain. The road ran 

 along the side of a forest with a strip of unburnt 

 grass about fifty yards wide on the other side, 

 and beyond the grass was an open plain. I was 

 at first incredulous, but eventually turned back ; 

 and there, sure enough, was a bear far from any 

 cover in the plain, and at a considerable distance 

 from the forest. By this time it was near sunrise, 

 ii 



