About Bears 321 



A bear's charge is in fact more often than not 

 an effort to escape, as is shown by another incident 

 of the same sort which happened to me very 

 shortly after. I had marked a panther into a 

 narrow cleft which ran deep into a cliff of rock. 

 After posting myself at its mouth, I told my 

 shikari to throw a stone in as far as he could. 

 Loud roars were followed by the rush of an animal, 

 fortunately perhaps for me not the panther, but 

 a big black bear into which the panther had 

 seemingly transformed himself. Scarcely had I 

 time to fire before I was knocked down by the 

 beast, who went straight over me and away. We 

 followed him by the biggest blood track I have 

 ever seen, but after going some miles the blood 

 stopped, the commonly accepted story is that a 

 bear himself stuffs leaves and moss into a wound, 

 and I never got him. This was clearly no 

 charge but a dash for safety, his savage roars 

 being, I imagine, mere make-believe to clear the 

 way. She-bears with cubs do, however, some- 

 times mean business. One such I met on the 

 top of a round hill, the name of which remains 

 fixed in my memory Gidh Toria, the vulture's 

 " Tor." On being disturbed by two men with 

 guns, the family made off in the high grass. A 

 snap at the nearest, which turned out to be a 

 cub, was followed by the most piteous howls, 



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