162 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



and the bear, almost immediately after I saw 

 him, started off at a canter for the forest. I had 

 not recovered from my annoyance in regard to 

 the sambur, and made no attempt to take up a 

 strategical position, but simply marked the bear's 

 line and then stood on the road and waited for 

 him. When the bear was about one-third of the 

 way through the patch of grass he saw me standing 

 in front of him on the road and raised his head, 

 and I took the opportunity to fire. The shot 

 was well placed, but did not inflict a mortal 

 wound. He made a tremendous row and flailed 

 his two forearms about, and I fired the second 

 barrel at his chest. At the shot he charged 

 me straight, and I turned and retreated, reloading 

 as I did so, but expecting every moment to feel 

 the bear's claws or teeth in my back. Fortunately, 

 however, I had shot straight, and before he reached 

 me the bear fell dead. Mihtab Khan was 

 standing near me with my Rigby-Mauser in his 

 hand, but he did not fire, and had not even 

 removed the sight protector. It was my business 

 to see the thing through, and he was merely an 

 interested spectator. 



The bear was a large one, and was very old, 

 and his coat bore the scars of many fights. 



After this I shot the three black Himalayan 

 bears and the three sloth-bears referred to in 

 Chapters VIII and IX without any particular 

 excitement, but in the early part of the year 

 1913, when I visited India for the third time, 

 after my retirement from the Indian Civil Service, 

 I had a somewhat remarkable experience with 

 bears. I arrived in India about Christmas 1912, 



