The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1914-06-25

Ut was in August that my friend,
| the maharajah of T sent me
| 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
ping-and also took chupplies, san
dal worn on kind of white kid leather
sock. l armed myself with my 500
express and 12-bore shotgun, also my
| 450, with which | had shot tigers in
Bengal, writes Il j." in Country Life.
My wife took with her a 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 | already possessed. The
party consisted of the rajah and his
two secretaries, Chunda Babu and
Chindamon, who proved something of
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 a 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
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
x1rif 7 sst tha L.
was very thick, and we should be un-
able to see the bear till he was right
on US II he came from where the shi-
karis expected. Under these circum-
stances l thought 1t advisable to put
ID. a little way up a tree. Having
fixed her up comfortably, ! sat just
below, and the beat began. d. was
to have first shot. Presently, about
fifty yards away, ! caught sight Of
piece of black moving up towards us
slowly. 1t was 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
till he was seven yards from me. and
he did look a monster. I could not
understand why D. did not shoot, and
thought seven yards was close enough
to be pleasant. AS raised my rife he
saw me, but too late; he had got my
577 bullet behind his ear, and over he
went. As he rolled over fred 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 l 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 tif1n. This was
an awkward nullah to beat satisfac-
torily with the number of beaters we
had that day, two hundred odd. It
was finally arranged that the men
should divide, one lot beating up
toward us. but at right angles, /. g.,
along the side of the nullah. Not
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 a hundred
yards to the right. Fifty yards beyond
me we stationed a sfiikari with shot
gun 30 act ~ stop" 1. q. II he saw
the bear coming towards him It meant
the bear was outside our line and