CHAPTER IX 



BLACK BEAR HONKING IN THE VALLEY OF KASHMIR 



LTHOUGH it had not been my inten- 

 tion to look for bear around Bandipur, 

 it was here that an event occurred 

 which convinced me that game was 

 plentiful and made me sanguine of early success. 

 Kadera came into the tent toward sundown to in- 

 form me that two large black bears had recently 

 been seen in the hills directly behind the village, and 

 suggested that we tramp back a few miles on the 

 chance of running across one. We accordingly set 

 out with a gam wallah, or local guide, who led us up 

 into the hills to the foot of a long slope covered with 

 low furze-bush, where we crouched for a couple of 

 hours. Toward dark my eye was caught by a large 

 object moving across the open hilltop some three 

 .hundred yards from our position. Its enormous size 

 made me believe at first that it must be a stray bul- 

 lock, and the fact that the shikaris, usually so quick 

 to sight game, remained motionless, almost kept 

 me from calling attention to it. Yet bullocks are 

 seldom black, and there was something about the 



