BEARS BEARDED IN THEIR DENS. 237 



rousing him up. Seeing the bear's foot hanging out of the 

 outer mouth ot the cleft below, I told a Santhal to lay 

 hold of it, while I stopped his exit by the pole, in case he 

 was not quite incapable of making an attack, and the man 

 seizing the foot, commenced to haul away, and then there 

 began a shindy, for as it turned out there were two lying 

 together, one as dead as Julius Caesar, and a second alongside, 

 whose regular breathing caused the dead beast's body to 

 heave as if alive, and the Santhal had got hold of the foot of 

 the live one ! I was stooping down over the pair of them, 

 and had barely time to jump up, seize my rifle, and hit 

 number two, as he dashed past me into the inner den, where 

 I finished him with a bullet through the head. It took us 

 three hours to pull the two bears out of the cave, and down 

 the hill. That the second bear refused to move when the first 

 was killed instantaneously is most surprising, but such was the 

 fact. They are roused out of their dens with much difficulty, 

 and this one may have taken the report of the rifle for a 

 clap of thunder. 



" On another occasion, also, I had a narrow escape. I had 

 beaten a small hill in the Manbhoom district, out of which 

 had come a sulky old bear, which I succeeded in wounding 

 only, as he was rather too far on my right for an exact aim. 

 Following him to another low hill, we tried to drive him over 

 it, but he was not to be forced, and broke back through the 

 beaters, with the intention of returning to his original lair. 

 By this time he had become desperately cross, as I had too, 

 before I took up another position behind a tree, close to the 

 jungle, and within a couple of yards of a path I knew he 

 would follow on being dislodged. As I always stand alone, 

 I sent away my gun-bearers to mount some trees a little dis- 

 tance off. Presently out he came, and I waited till he should 

 pass me, before I finished him at close quarters ; but the same 

 idea seemed to have struck him, for he seized my rifle and 

 left hand, to which last he gave a vindictive crunch. I got 

 clear of him however, and fired from the hip as soon as 

 I was free, and knocked him backwards upon his haunches 



