144 TWO YEARS IN- THE JUNGLE. 



I was obliged to slioot them all with my rifle, and in order to get 

 a skeleton having no broken bones, I had to shoot one monkey 

 through the head and take its body and legs, and shoot another of 

 the same size through the body for the sake of its skull. The 

 Mulcers ate the flesh of every one I killed, and had it not been that 

 deer were plentiful I should have been tempted to try it myself. 



The black langur is a very handsome monkey. The fur is fine 

 and glossy, black throughout, except that the head and nape are 

 gray or grayish brown, the face is encircled by a ring of long gray 

 hairs, and in old individuals there is a large gray patch on the 

 rump. The largest of my specimens measured, head and body, 

 29 inches, tail 37 inches. But this Avas a giant in comparison with 

 all the others, a good sized one being, head and body 23 inches, 

 tail 35, and weight 23 pounds, which should be set down as the 

 average size of this species. 



One morning when out looking for elephants, we had a rather 

 amusing adventure with a party of bears. We had tracked down 

 and killed a sambur, but unfortunately it was too young to fui'nish 

 either skin, skeleton, or skull, and so the game fell a prey to the 

 Mulcers, who jo;y'fully cut it up and loaded themselves with the 

 flesh, while I looked on in disgust. On the way home we were 

 strolhng stupidly along in Indian file, utterly listless and inatten- 

 tive, when, happening to cast my eyes to the left, I was amazed at 

 seeing three black bears loj^iug slowly along, one behind the other, 

 and only thirty yards away. They were going to cross our path, 

 and had we all been a trifle more stupid, we would have actually 

 come into collision. The bears were wholly unaware of our pres- 

 ence and so were all my men of theirs' until I awoke the whole 

 crowd by throwing up my rifle and firing at the largest bear. 



Directly there was a terrible uproar. The bear fell to the 

 gi-ound, howHng and bawling with all her might, while the other 

 two pitched right upon her, snapping and snarling viciously, and 

 all three yelling in concert. I had a rubber blanket tied around my 

 shoulders to keep off the rain and the fever, and owing to my en- 

 cumbrance and sudden excitement, I made most awkward work in 

 getting reloaded. The wounded bear tried her best to charge us, 

 although I saw her spine was broken, and as quickly as possible I 

 gave her another bullet through the shoulders, which seemed to 

 satisfy her rather better. By the time I had again reloaded, the 

 two unwounded bears had taken in the situation and started up 

 the hill as hard as they could go. A hundred yards away they 



