Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-06-03

~ T was in August that my friend,
| 81 the maharajah of t sent me
| IS a delightful invitation to join him
| III inc bear-shooting expedition to
Kashmir. He also included in his
invitation my wife, who already could
boast some experience in Indian sport,
though she had never as yet had the
| luck to include a bear among her tro-
! plies. 1t is needless to say we both
accepted this tempting offer, and set
to work at once to prepare our OUTFIT.
| My kit consisted of khaki shorts,
shooting shirts with short sleeves, and
special canvas boots with thick, pliable
| soles-these latter had broad welts
with eyelet holes, to enable the shl-
kari to lace on the grass soles which,
| though only lasting day, were very
useful when damped to prevent slip
ping-and also took chupplies, a san
dial worn on kind Of white kid leather
sock. l armed myself with my 500
express and 12-boTe shotgun, also my
$50, with which l had shot tigers in
Bengal, writes 81. j." in Country Life.
| My wife took with her small, pow
erful express rife, both given her by
the rajah. She was quite at home with
| both weapons. The rajah also kindly
presented me with a fine 577 express,
as he did not seem to put much faith
in the guns l already possessed. The
party consisted of the rajah and his
two secretaries, Chunda Babu and
! Chindamon, who proved something OF
a character; there we're also his me-
chanic, Lee, and large assortment
of shikaris and retainers; also, OF
course, myself and D., my wife. The
Rajah was real good sportsman, and
we all started in the greatest spirits
from Rawal Pindi, our destination be-
| ing Shinagar, 200 miles from Pindi.
The servants and luggage were dis
patched in tongas by road, while we
and the rajah followed by motor to
Murree. The rest of the way we did
by tongas.
His First Black Bear.
The valley we had chosen for our
central camp was called Chudrapool,
off the Sind Valley, and we arrived
there in due time. After establishing
| the camp we took to the mountains,
where the beaters soon had bear up.
| 1t was decided that the most likely
place for the bear to break was the
center nullah, so d. and | were sta
toned there, Lee and the rajah going
to the left and right in case the animal
broke across the next nullah. Where
my wife and l were sitting the jungle
was very thick, and we should be un-
| able to see the bear till he was right
| on US if he came from where the shi-
karis expected. Under these circum-
stances I thought it advisable to put
D. little way up a tree. Having
| fixed her up comfortably, I sat just
below, and the beat began D. was
to have first shot. Presently, about
fifty yards away, 1 caught sight Of
| piece of black moving up towards US
slowly. 1t was a bear, right enough,
and big one, too. On he came, and
then disappeared in thick jungle, to
appear again not ten yards away from
us. | signaled to d. to shoot, expect
| ing to see him roll over, but there
came no shot from D. Then 1 waited
till he was seven yards from me, and
| he did look a monster. l could not
understand why D. did not shoot, and
thought seven yards was close enough
to be pleasant AS l raised my rifle he
saw me, but too late; he had got my
! 577 bullet behind his ear, and over he
| went. AS he rolled over l fired again,
and hit him within an inch of the first
| bullet. Then, for the first time, it
| seemed, D. saw him as he was rolling
down to the bottom of the nullah, and
gave him a bullet for luck So 1 got
my first bear, and he was a big one,
measuring six feet five inches. We
skinned him and sent off his skin to
| Srinagar, We then moved across to
| the next nullah, and, while the beat
was getting ready, had tiffin. This was
an awkward nullah to beat satisfac-
| torily with the number of heaters we
| had that day, two hundred odd. 1t
was finally arranged that the men
should divide, one lot beating up
toward US, but at right angles, l. e.,
along the side of the nullah. Not a
good arrangement, as it turned out.
We stationed ourselves, Lee on the
left, D. and the rajah together, as the
| jungle was too thick for her to be
alone; then myself, about hundred
yards to the right. Fifty yards beyond
me we stationed a shikari with a shot
gun to act as stop" { e., if he saw
| the bear coming towards him it meant
the bear was outside our line and