A BEAK ADVENTUKE IN CEYLON. 155 



them, and they missed me a second time in the 

 same way. These were more like the consecutive 

 bounds of a clumsy gallop than anything else, but 

 the third I saw was to be my last. All that I re- 

 member is, uttering a sound of horror between a 

 scream and a roar, and as the foremost animal rose 

 at me, I struck him with all the force of my body 

 in the nose and teeth with my brandy-bottle, the 

 only thing in my hands. I need not say that the 

 bottle broke into shivers ; and whether it was the 

 blow on the nose a part, I have since heard, of 

 great tenderness in bears or that part of the brandy 

 went into his eyes and mouth and astonished him, 

 or both these things together, I know not; but he 

 turned round and moved off, followed by his com- 

 panion, down the path away from me, and so into 

 the jungle. The female at no time had taken a 

 decided part, keeping rather in the rear, and only 

 backing her mate by encouraging grunts. The whole 

 business, I may say, scarcely occupied a minute's 

 time, during which I did not in the least lose my 

 presence of mind, probably from the shortness of 

 the time. I felt so conscious indeed of my own 

 strength, that had there been but one bear, though 

 I might have suffered much, I was confident I could 

 have dislocated his jaw. But the two together quite 

 discomfited me. I said that I never lost my presence 

 of mind during the rencontre ; but I own that I stood 

 as if fixed to the spot while they moved off, and till 



