The Ely miner., 1901-05-31
CHASED BY A BEAR.

before 1 get to my story. l. was then
young ensign quartered with my regimen,
} of native troops in Secunderabad, the larg
est military station in India. 1t is in tn,
territory of the nizam of the Deccan. Tn,
nizam is the ruler of Hyderabad, and tn.
Deccan is the name given to wide area Of
India. The city of Hyderabad, where the
nizam lived, was then very hotbed ol
Mohammedans, and it was not safe for ar
Englishman to enter it without the specia
permission and protection of it's ruler.
was only in the city once, and that was te
dine with the dewan, or native prime min
lister there. But my story fingers.
At the time am writing of large game
was far more abundant in India than it il
now, and keen sportsman had enough and
to spare of good shooting.
One day brother officer and myself, both
ardent sportsmen, decided to ask for ten
days leave to go off on bear-shooting ex.
pedition. The leave obtained, we started
away with our native servants and our camp
equipments, the latter carried by four sturdy
little bullocks. Forty miles of rough coun-
try were traversed before we decided to
| pitch our tent, in locality that we knew to
be the hunting ground of the bear and the
! leopard.
| The country was wild and rugged, with
huge masses of rocks running across it's face,
gaping with assures and honeycombed with
caves, many of them tenanted by families
! of wild beasts. In such lonely spots the
nights are strangely silent. The cry of
some animal may occasionally break the
stiffness, or the sleeper may be startled into
wakefulness by the wierd shrieking of a
hyena; but more often the hours of dark
ness are as noiseless as "the foot of time
Early morning, before the sun is up is the
time to hunt bears. So, on the third day
after our arrival, all eager for the fray, we
got astir before dawn and started out with
our guns. Our plan of action was that my
brother officer should take one side of big
rocky hill, l the other; that we should
keep near the foot of the hill and patiently
wait for the bears as they returned to their
dens from their nocturnal foragings We
were accompanied by half dozen natives
carrying spare rifles.
We got to our respective posts, and had
not been long at mine before heard a shot
on the far side of the hill, followed by the
short, sharp, barklike cry of a bear, startled
but not hit. In few minutes l heard his
heavy tramp coming in my direction, uncon-
scious of the ambushed enemy ahead of him.
With rifle ready cooked l anxiously awaited
his approach. Nearer and nearer he came,
and then suddenly loomed out of the semi
darkness, going at full gallop and passing
within few feet of me. No time in that
light to take sight. Bang and down he
went, and lay stretched out at full length, as
dead as bear could be.
My servants were crying to me to shoot
him. ''Shoot him, sahib; shoot him!''
No." | said, II don't shoot dead ami
mails" and made towards him. And then
strange thing happened. The bear, as if
electrified, started to spin round and round
like teetotum. Without moments de-
lay, bang! and my second barrel was
emptied into him. Surely" l thought,
"that will quiet him." but the effect was
exactly the opposite. Up he jumped in
fury, and came straight for me.
| turned to get another rifle, but, horror!
my attendants, panic-stricken, had deserted
me and fled, taking with them my two spare
rifles. l had no leisure then for admiring
the agility with which they scrambled up
the face of a high rock; but the memory of
those natives, green with fear, and clawing
up that slippery rock, like cats up the side
of a chimney has caused me many laugh
since. The savage beast was nearly on me,
and unless l wished to try a bout of
wrestling with him it was high time for me
to make a move. A large boulder close at
hand caught my eye. Behind it quickly
lodged.
This rock could not have been more than
four feet high and Is feet in circumference,
but at least it was shield between me and
my enemy.
Standing on his hind legs to the height of
nearly six feet, his great hairy arms ex-
tended ready to embrace me, and the white
horseshoe showing clearly on his massive
chest, the enraged monster commenced to
chase me round that rock.
Perhaps you know what it is to be chivied
round the dining-room table by an irate
elder brother; if SO, substitute bear for
brother, and you will be able to under
stand little what my feelings were. Relax
my efforts for one moment, slip or make
false move. and / was lost. Every sense was
alert, every muscle quick to obey, as [
worked to evade the clutches of my dread
pursuer. One last resource was left me-
my revolver. / pulled it from my belt and
fired full into his face time after time, till
all the chambers were empty; but he didn't
seem to notice these little attentions; didn't
so much as sneeze. | don't know how many
laps we had done, when he suddenly changed
his tactics and started to Chamber over the
rock to get at me that way. But whether
the rock was slippery, or his wounds were
beginning to tell on him, can't say; [ only
know that, to my great relief, he failed in
his endeavor. After this failure he turned
away, seemingly in disgust, and went up the
HILL l seized the opportunity to reload my
rife and then followed him, determined to
see the adventure through. The boot was
now on the other leg-the pursued had be-
come the pursuer, and he liked his new role
best.
1 pressed on through the thick under
growth, and had got quite near to him,
when, Fright about face" and he was
charging full down at me down the steep
and rugged hill, scattering the loose stones
as he came. l banged at him with both
barrels; but nothing could stop that bear,
and on he came. The fortune of battle had
changed once again, and there was with an
empty gun as the only weapon with which
to meet this new onslaught. did not like
the prospect, and, as discretion is sometimes
the better part of valor, resolved to be
discreet and fly the face of my adversary.
How tore down that hill, and Bruin after
me! But he must have been growing weak
from his wounds, as he soon relinquished
the chase and made off.
Ny brother officer had heard all the firing
IN NV side of the hill and ha astenod round