The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-01-15

:
Lets go and see.''
And sure enough there were "purs, of \
bear, of the day before, Succaram said but
that was enough. The footprint, or ''pug,"
of bear closely resembles that of a man,
but Is rather wider at the toes, in front of
which may always be seen the print of the
claws, so that there is little chance of mis-
taking one for the other We had hardly
resumed our position, when we saw native
running as if for his life in our direction.
and shouting ''Bear, beari'' loud enough
to have warned the animal of which he
spoke. A word or two from 4. and some
dlsreSpectful remarks as to his female rela-
tlons from Succaram, reduced him to reason:
and trembling, partly from excitement, part
ly from fear that his carelessness would be
the cause of loss of part of his pay, the
bcater explained how man about mile
away had signalled the approach of bear
towards the part of the hill where he stood.
Away VIC went as hard as we could run,
b. the youngest, and the last from home.
leading, as he should; / second and A. a
bad third, using, | am afraid, strong Ian
youngsters in such great hurry A. soon
gave up, though ! could still hear linn
grumbling; and |, after a time, dropped
into quiet walk but B. though the ground
was rough and covered with loose stones.
still ran on, turning now and then to beckon
us up. At last, he too broke into walk.
until. on reaching the top of small rise, he
turned and crial ont. ssCo,,,o o,, 49,, ri
lows; there are two of them. ~ Off we
went again; and as | reached the spot where
b. had stood, saw him in the act of firing
at two black backs which rose above the ton
of the dried grass with which the hillside
was covered. Down | went at once to him,
though, as | ran, I noticed that B's shots
did not seem to produce much effect. As /
reached him, the bears turned at about
twenty-five yards from us, and came up at
us. Like an idiot, did not wait until they
were clear of the grass, but fired both my
barrels at the mass of black hair which alone
| could see; and, it is scarcely necessary to
say, my shouts produced little or no effect
beyond a grunt. We had now four empty
barrels. and two bears. On came the bears,
not angrily, but rather as if bored at so
much noise, until at last they cleared the
grass about ten PAGES from us, and then,
suddenly changing their direction, passed
close on one side of us, who stood there,
feeling rather foolish, and trying to reload
and to get our breath. A. now came up
Just as the bears cleared the far side of the
crest, and rolled the hindmost over down the
hill. Then commenced grand fire from us
youngsters, which continued, without much
harm to the bear, as long as a patel. OF back
hair remained in sight. At last. Wien \.
having sat down and recovered l.ie breath,
and could speak, we received our plni~h-
ment, in a long detail of misadventures.
Suddenly, we were on the alert. Succaram
jumped and cried ''Sahi5 there is the
bear under the tree,'' And SO he was,
rolled up like a black ball at the root of
tree about halfway down the side of the
hill, and about three-quarters of mile
away. OF we went by circuitous path,
and very quietly, for fear of another mis-
take. Slowly we crept through the jungle,
striving not to break stick or rustic a leaf;
slowly we came out into the open, and crept
along until we saw the top of the tree under
which the bear lay.
y. evidently determined to take first shot,
motioned us to fall behind him. On we
crawled until the stem of the tree was clear
against the sky, and then the root, and then
the ground beyond, was visible, but no bear
At last, when we were about fifteen yards
from the tree, we heard grunt, and few
leaves battered on the ground Il Jumped
up n fired. Out rushed the bear, a great
deal more frightened than hurt, until sec
ond shot broke his hind-lcg, and tumbled
him down the hill. Away he went, on two
legs, for As first stot. we found, had
broken his fore-leg; away for about mile,
uphill and down-hil, not seeming to know
quite where he wanted to go, until at last,
to our delight, he turned, and came back
towards us, meaning to pass little to our
right. We ran down to cut him off, but
We're too late, for we heard him grunting in
front of us. Then commenced running
fight through the open .jancle, in which A.
was outpaced, and b. and | alternately fired
over each Others head at the bear, when he
halted. 1t was not very sportsmanlike, bat
it was very good fun. At last we lost sight
of the bear, and were beginning to think of
how to excuse ourselves to \. when a native
who was peTched on tree told us that our
black friend had passed round the hill.
About hundred and fifty yards farther we
found him, very sick, under a tree. We
went in at him together, and with couple
Of shots sent him to rejoin the deceased
members of his family. A. now came up,
looking volumes of bad language, and, when
we showed him the bear, said only: "And
how many holes hare you made in his skin?"
This idea had never struck us, that it might
be wise to kill an animal without spelling
the skin, SO we answered nothing, but sat
down to wait until the operation of skinning
had been completed.
We reached the tents abou. halfpast pinc,
brcakfasted, smoked a cheroot, and waited
with impatience for the return of Succaram,
who had been sent to get intelligence of any