The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-09


in the face; give the point as ne comes up,
generally it will be in the mouth, as the bear
endeavors TO seize the spear IN his teethj the
moment he feels the wound he throws himself
on his back. and with his fore-paws pushes
the smear out of his mouth with ease, nOtwith-
standing any endeavors Of yours indeed, you
are lucky if the spear is not wrenched from
your hand, as it very often is. Now is the
time for your comrade, who steps up and
| plunges his spear into the breast between the
fore-paws you with your shil1ar knife sever
the tendons under the fore-leg, both if you
have time. The strength of the beast is enor-
nous, and he will sometimes rise for few
minutes, and one blow from his fore-paw has
been known to kill a man.
The haunts of the bear are rocks on a hill
side, particularly those overlooking cult
waited valleys; they sleep all day in caves,
and issue out at night to feed in the sugar
cane plantations. They do not stay long in
the same cave if at all disturbed, but move
about the country from cave to cave. Many
Of these caves are very deep. | have been
in some running for one hundred yards into
the hill side, and six or eight feet high, per-
haps twenty feet wide at mouth, and narrow
ing away into the interior. The bears sleep in
mass together at the far end, and are often
difficult to get out. The natives take advan-
tage of q favorable wind when they have
of wet leaves; the smoke, driving into the
cave, sometimes forces the bear out, but it is
tedious work, taking some hours. The natives
hide themselves behind pieces of rock, and
shoot poisoned arrows at the bear, as their
great object is to get rid of him for the sake of
their crops and honey, getting the flesh and
skin being secondary object and hardly con-
sidered worth the danger, they being, as / have
observed, very fearful of the bear.
Thaca oavar. which olouy,d 4l,o
Himalayas, are used very much, when they
are in practicable places, by the Bhooteas who
travel every year with large focks of goats
and gibboos (tame yak from Tibbet and
Hoondes to Hindostan, bringing SALT borax,
and camphor in wallets both on the goats and
gibboos backs, and taking back grain. Some
of the passes are only open three months in
the year; that of Niti, which once crossed, is
eighteen thousand feet at its lowest point,
being three thousand feet higher than the
summit of Mont Blanc consequently, the time
of the communication being so limited be-
tween the people of the two sides of the noun
tain, when they do cross, it is in large parties;
and very unpleasant thing, when going along
a narrow path, a roaring torrent forty or fifty
feet below you on one side, and the bare wall
of rock one thousand feet high on the other,
to meet one of these long streams of men
and animals in single file. If you are
riding, the only thing to be done is to turn
round, and ride back until you come to some
open space or recess or cave in which you
can stand while they pass, otherwise you
are certain to be pushed over, horse and all,
into the torrent, and dashed to pieces by the
boiling and leaping waters in five minutes. 1t
is impossible for the leading animals to stop,
as the pressure of the multitude behind, reach
ing, perhaps, half or three-quarters of a mile,
would force them over the precipice at once.
When on foot we generally managed to squeeze
up against the cliff-side, and let them pass,
occupying ten minutes to half an hour. 1t
was very amusing, when standing in this po-
sition, to see the astonishment of the Hbbet-
tans who were coming along with their hooks
(they had no time to stop, hardly to speak
as l said before, in these parties every one
must keep moving, or over the precipice he
goes), when they suddenly come upon-for
the first time in their lives, perhaps-two
white men standing against the rocks. They
would shout out, in Mongol dialect, to their
friends behind Look at the white man -
"Look at the Room man" supposing, per-
haps we were Russians.
once lost valuable animal with very
valuable load in this way. 1t was a large
gibboo OK, which had bought from HoOnia
chief; it was laden with two large wallets, in
which were all my stock of brandy and medi-
cine, and also lead, powder, and small shot.
One of my paharries e.. e. hill-men), was
walking in front of it as usual, leading it by
rope through its nose. 1t was on a narrow
path, with a very steep precipice OF several
hundred feet on one side, clothed with thick
brushwoed. The rest of my party, tent, ETC.,
were some mile or two behind. This man was
going on ahead as he knew the country, to
select place for an encampment. l was on
the opposite side of the valley, stalking some
snow pheasants which | had marked down.
Turning my head to look at the valley, / saw
coming down the narrow path large party
of Bhooteas, with ponies, goats, and
gibboos in front were three ponies
with large wallets, full probably of salt,
which is heavy and packs very close. Look
ing back down the valley to see where my
party were, to my horror saw my paharry
with the gibboo OK and his valuable cargo
strolling along up the path with his head down,
and evidently quite unconscious of the ap-
preaching party, which a projecting rock,
round which the path went hid from his sight
the noise of the torrent below, / suppose,
prevented his hearing the bells of the Bhooteas,
which all their animals have round their necks.
/ shouted, fired my gun, threw my cap in the
air, but all in vain; the noise of the torrent
made him deaf, and his eyes on the ground
prevented his seeing my signs. then cast
my eyes along the path to calculate where
they would meet, and see if it was broad there,
II appeared to me that the projecting rock,
where the path was very narrow, was nearly
halfway between them, if anything, nearer
NV man. but as he moved slower going
u1 hill. I hoped the leading ponies would
come round the point of rock in time to
warn him: but in a few moments / saw
that was wrong and that in all probability
I,a ofaft trct