THE OLD DOG BEAR AND HIS WIFE. IO9 
deliberately tiimbling head over heels, again running three or 
four paces and another somersault, and so on, Mrs. B. who 
had got on some little distance in front turned back and came 
up the hill again, whether to charge me or assist her spouse' 
I know not, but his extraordinary method of coming down 
the hill appeared so to astonish her that she turned tail and 
rushed into the shola. I waited for him to stop and give me 
a fairer shot than the round ball he was making of himself, 
but he would not, so I fired just as he entered the shola, 
Francis said 1 hit him, but I doubt it, as his mode of entering 
the shola was so absurd that I was unsteady from laughing. 
Instead of going nose first as a bear ought to do, he entered 
head over heels exactly as the harlequin at a pantomime 
would disappear through the wall of a house. As soon as he 
got well into the wood he sat down and began roaring most 
piteously, every roar being answered by a large black 
monkey. As it was getting dark we had not time to make 
much of a search so we gave it up. Francis was quite 
certain that we should find him in the morning, but we did 
not and never saw him again. 
It seems to be a peculiarity with bears, at any rate with 
the Indian bear, that they must always bite something w^hen 
they are wounded. One day I was out looking for a tiger 
when I came across an old bear sitting up busily scratching 
herself. I stalked close up to her (a litde over twenty 
yards), by which time she had commenced feeding again, so 
I waited till she turned towards me when 1 dropped her 
with a ball between the shoulders. However, up she 
got, and began singing out most lustily, so I gave her 
another which broke her fore leg, when she instandy seized 
and crushed it to pieces, I could hear the bones breaking. 
