The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1914-05-29


the maharajah Of T sent me
a delightful invitation to join him
in a 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 bear among her tro-
phies. 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 shi-
kari to lace on the grass soles which,
though only lasting a day, were very
useful when damped to prevent slip
p1ng-and also took chupplies, a san
dal worn on kind of white kid leather
sock. / armed myself with my 500
express and 12-bore shotgun, also my
$50, with which / had shot tigers in
Bengal, writes IL. 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 fine SIT 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
4 character; there were 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.
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
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 a bear up.
1t was decided that the most likely
place for the bear to break was the
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 I'M
able to see the bear till he was right
On us If he came from where the shi-
karis expected. Under these circum-
stances l thought it advisable to put
D. little way up tree. Having
fixed her up comfortably, / sat just
below, and the beat began. d. was
to have first shot. Presently, about
fifty yards away, l caught sight of a
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 l waited
ill he was seven yards from me, and
ne did look a monster. | could not
understand why D. did not shoot, and
thought seven yards was close enough
to be pleasant. AS / 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 / fired again,
and hit him within an inch of the first
bullet Then, for the first time, ii
seemed, D. saw him as he was rolling
down to the bottom of the nullah, and
gave him 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 beaters we
had that day, two hundred odd. II
was finally arranged that the mer
|