230 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



drawback attendant upon this mode, that the rifles, being 

 placed low, are fired at dangerous levels in respect of the lives 

 and limbs of the beaters ; whereas from platforms raised as 

 they ought to be where tigers may be put up, at least nine 

 feet from the ground, the line of fire is so much downwards, 

 long shots over eighty or a hundred yards being rare, that 

 accidents are comparatively few ; for if a bullet miss and 

 ricochet, it will either split up on the hard or rocky ground or 

 fly upwards till its force is spent. 



There is a widespread notion that the bear usually rears 

 up on his hind legs in attacking, but, as a matter of fact, he 

 does not do so, but runs at his enemy, and, knocking him down, 

 both bites and claws him. Armed with strong incisors and 

 fearfully long and powerful claws, he inflicts the most dread- 

 ful wounds. Should a man stand up to him armed with a 

 " tulwar," or iron-bound " lathee " or staff, the bear may rear 

 up to get a blow at his head, and I Jiave seen them rise thus 

 in low dwarf "sal," to obtain a view round, in order to 

 regulate their own movements ; they will rear up also to 

 attack " machans " in which they have detected men, and 

 occasionally ludicrous scenes may be witnessed when Bruin, 

 wounded or made desperately savage by being driven out of 

 his lair on a burning hot day, makes for a " machan " on 

 which two or three natives being seated, armed with axes, 

 swords, or spears, receive him with volleys of abuse and 

 showers of blows as he endeavours to clamber up and dis- 

 lodge them from their perch. 



One day I was watching beside a jungle which was being 

 beaten up towards me, and had just shot an axis stag, when 

 a bear passed rapidly before me from left to right more 

 than a hundred yards off, and was either missed altogether 

 or only slightly hurt, for he did not pause for an instant, 

 although he acknowledged the shot with a grunt. Seated 

 upon the high bank above a little rivulet, from the bed of 

 which a narrow and steep track rose abruptly to them, 

 were an Eurasian Inspector of Police and a native u Shi- 

 karee" both armed with guns and protected by a breast- 



