THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
turned out, I yielded to his advice, and had not proceeded far when all 
sounds in front ceased, and I knew that the game was up. I lay for a quarter 
of an hour and then found that the wind curled upwards at this point 
directly towards the deer and had given him the wind. It is this fatal 
curling of the wind that spoils twenty-nine stalks out of thirty, for the stag 
nearly always chooses places where the lee of the hill will waft the gentle 
breeze coming from any angle towards his position. If this stag had been 
moving, as Henry suggested, I should doubtless have seen him, but as it 
was he had been standing, as shown by his tracks, a long time in one place, 
and had rushed off on scenting the danger. In this case I am not at all 
certain that it was not the deer that smelt us, for on the top of the retreating 
herd was plainly seen the footprints of a large bear which had followed 
them. In fact, it is possible that the bear was lying down wind and had 
detected me and then rushed in amongst the deer. 
Brown bear ( ursus arctus) were numerous in this part of the forest, for 
I found on returning to the big koliba that Prince Lowenstein had had an 
interesting experience with one the night before. He had repaired to the 
carcass of a dead horse which had been killed as a bait. Another bear, a 
very large one, had come to dinner just a moment or two too late for a 
shot to be obtained. The beast dragged the carcass into some thick bushes 
and kept growling and crushing the bones within thirty yards of the hunter, 
who was quite unable to see the sights of his rifle. It must have been tan- 
talizing. Another guest during the same week was watching for bears 
at a dead horse, when two came just after dusk and had a desperate fight 
over their supper, within a few yards of the hunter, who was also unable 
to see them in the gloom of the forest. These Carpathian bears are in all 
respects similar to those of Norway ,butvary less in their external characters. 
As a rule they are a rich dark brown all over and seldom measure more than 
five feet in length. For the most part they are harmless vegetarians, but enjoy 
the remains of such dead animals as they find killed by men or wolves. 
Old “ Medjved,” as the bear is called, seldom attacks man, even when 
wounded, and the peasants seem to have little fear or dislike for them, 
except when they take to killing sheep or goats. They hole up about the 
end of November in some rocky cavern or hollow tree and remain there till 
March. A curious incident occurred in 1906 in the long railway tunnel at 
Wononienka, which joins Galicia to Hungary. Shortly before Christmas 
a large bear entered the tunnel from Wononienka, and, finding the place 
warm and dry, thought it would be a good place in which to spend the 
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