CHASED BY A BEAR.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 320, 28 November 1888, Page 3

CHASED BY A BEAR.

Tjik danger of only wounding a bear is well-known to sportsmen, and' is well illustrated in the following description of what occurred near an isolated and solitary station on the East Indian Railway. Those engaged in the affair were a young engineer in charge of that part of the Jine, a station-master, and attendant natives. The engineer was armed with a 500 Express lille, and his companion, the stalion-ma&ter, cat ried a Snider carbine ; they had wiLh them also a double shotgun loaded with a ball. 'We heard of the bear,' say a the engineer, 'from some men up the line, and luckily for me, as it turned out, in order to get near him noiselessly I changed my heavy boots before stai ting for a pair of rubbersoled tennis shoes. In these I contrived to get quietly to a rock overlooking the cave or hollow where the bear lay, and could see the whole of his enormous head, lying with bib eyes open on the ground., I took a steady aim at it with the Express, and filed, and beyond some slight convulsive movements of his paws, the bear did not move an inch after the shot, so we looked upon him as dead. In about ten seconds, however, he struggled to his feet, and started to roll (not walk) down the hill below him. t_ snatched the smoothbftre ,fjom one of the natives?, and jumped upon a higher rock, where I could see the flat ground below, in a few seconds I caught sight cf him waiting slowly among the small trees and jungle, and tired both barrels after him, but with no apparent result, seeing which, I jumped clown to follow him up, feeling sure his head was smashed, and expecting bo find him dead. We both went after him, and boon getting another glimpse of him about a hundred yards off, I hrcd again with the rillo and he disappeared at once down a nulla, 01 watei -course, down which we rushed after him, expecting to find him lying ab the bottom. * We soon saw him, however, climbing the other side of the nulla about forty yards off, and the instant he saw us, he turned and made for us at a gallop. The natives, of course, a'l fled at once for their lives, and my rifle being empty. I did the same. My companion, having his carbine loaded, turned as> he ran, and fired with a view to check the bear's advance, which it did, but only for a lew seconds, during which I stopped to reload ; bub befoie I could get the piece closed the bear was upon me full tilt, w hile my friend was fifty yards ahead, going like blazes. Well. I thought, the bear must be hard hit, and with these lawn-tennis shoes on it will be rum if I can't distance him. So 1 started at my beat hundred yards' speed, with the bear about twenty yards astern. I contiived to close the breach of ray gun as I vent, and then gave up my mind entirely to going 1 , thinking thai if 1 could get a shot t lead it would perhaps make him give up the chase, and so allow me to turn and get a steady shot. To my astonish men b, however, I found the brute was gaining on me at every stride, and before we had covered a hundred yards I could hear him close behind growling and scattering thts gravel at every step as he came up with me. It i& a case now, I thought, unless I turn at once and fire before he is on to me, though if I miss I'm done for (of course, I thought all this in half a secoml). So I wheeled, or half-turned, bringing up the ritie as I did so. I had ju<-t tme to cover him ab six paces, coming straight at me with that clumsy gallop t>o deceptive as to speed. I felt quite collected and steady — the calmness, I fancy, of despeiation ; when I pulled the tiiager he \uts nob 6ft. from the mu^le of \ho rifle, -and was an ugly sight with lm great head up ready to seize me, with jaws open and dripping with blood. ' After tiring I did not wait an instant, but dashed on the moment I had pulled the tiigger. That shot, however, rolled him over, and, not hearing him coming on again, I stopped to leload. The bear again got upon his feet, bub this time evidently very faint, my bullet having struck him right in the centre of his forehead ; yet, wonderful to say, he chaiged again, and did not entirely succumb until I had fiied thiee more shots at him. On skinning the bear — which was the largest I have seen, and of great power— we found that no fewer than six bullets had struck him, besides the one between his eyes which saved my bacon.'