s line, and as
by this time he was getting rather too close--i.e., about ten yards
off--I stood up and took a steady shot at his head and dropped him dead.
Now, strange to say, I do not believe that the bear ever saw me at all,
and he could not wind me, as the south-westerly wind was blowing strongly
from him to me, and yet, as the grass at that season was by no means long,
he had no more difficulty in seeing me than I had in seeing him, and he
probably would have walked right up to me. This instance is, I think,
interesting, and goes far to explain the numerous accidents in connection
with bears. Still there can be no doubt that, as Colonel Peyton says, an
unwounded and untouched bear will deliberately attack people when there is
no occasion for his doing so, and that too, under circumstances where no
other animal would make an attack, and of this the following little
incident will serve as an illustration.

On one occasion a bear was reported on a jungly hill about a mile from my
bungalow, and as I was young and inexperienced then, I said that I would
lie on the ground till I heard the beaters, and then stand behind a tree.
I was alone, and had only a single barrelled rifle, which I laid on the
ground beside me. As the cover was rather a large one, I had no reason to
expect anything till I could at least hear the beaters in the distance,
and I lay leaning on my elbow and thinking of I cannot now remember what,
when on chancing to look up I saw a large bear standing at the edge of the
jungle about twenty yards away. The moment I moved he charged, and I at
once seized my rifle, sprang up and charged the bear at an angle (there
was no time to fire), and made for the jungle from which he had emerged. I
just missed his nose, and he followed me for a few paces as I ran towards
the jungle from which he had come, which I did knowing that he would not
be inclined to go in that direction. Then, having thus cleared me out of
the way, he turned, and resumed his original route, and as he was
disappearing into the next jungle I fired at him, but the charge must have
had a discomposing effect on my shooting, for I missed the bear
altogether. Now, as the beaters were far away and not within hearing,
there was no occasion for the bear to have attacked me, and there was
ample room for him to have altered his line. In fact, unless closely
pressed by beaters, no other unwounded animal would have so acted. It will
be observed that the bear