106 TEAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPOET. 



creature, as if it were conscious that the temptation 

 of the apricots had led it into a place where it ought 

 not to have "been. I did not mention this circum- 

 stance to Silas, for he was extremely anxious to have 

 a shot at a bear, and I was just as anxious that he 

 should not, because he had no sufficient qualification 

 for such dangerous sport, and to have wounded a bear 

 would only have resulted in its killing him, and per- 

 haps some more of us. After that, however, though 

 never troubled with another visit of the kind, I had 

 a sort of barricade made at night with my table and 

 other articles in front of the tent, so that I might not 

 be taken unawares ; for my visitor was not a little 

 Indian black bear, or even an ordinary Tibetan bear, 

 but a formidable specimen of the yellow or snow bear 

 (Ursus isdbellinus), which usually keeps above the 

 snow-line, is highly carnivorous in its habits, and 

 often kills the yaks of Pu, and of other villages, when 

 they are sent to graze in summer upon the high alp. 

 Shortly after this I discovered that the way to deal 

 with the horrible irritation of the sand-flies was to 

 have my tent closed at night, and to smoke them 

 out of it with burning fagots, which almost entirely 

 freed me from their annoyance, and was an immense 

 relief, though the plan had some disadvantages of 

 its own, because I did not like to strike a light for 

 fear of attracting the sand-flies ; and so the mov- 

 ing of creatures about and inside iny tent became 

 doubly unpleasant when there was little or no moon, 



