Still,
On He Came, And Just As He Crossed A Small Field Of Snow, F. Opened
Fire At Him Across The Ravine:
The ball struck just below his body,
and, as he plunged forward, I followed with both barrels.
On he went,
however, and before another shot could be fired he was coolly looking
down upon us from a terrace of inaccessible rocks, completely out of
range. Nothing remained but to descend again, and this we accomplished
very much more speedily, though perhaps not quite in such a graceful
style as we had ascended. The shikarees merely sat down on the inclined
plane, and with a hatchet or a stick firmly pressed under the arm as
a lever to regulate the pace, or a rudder to steer clear of rocks as
occasion might require, down they went at a tremendous pace, until
the slope was not sufficient to propel them further.
Our own wardrobe being limited in dimensions we declined adopting this
mode of locomotion, and slipping and sliding along, soon accomplished
the descent, in a less business-like but equally satisfactory
manner. While taking the direction of our camp, we espied seven more
animals, perched apparently upon a smooth face of rock; and after a
short council of war off we started on a fresh stalk, down another
descent, over more fields of snow, and up a place where a cat would
have found walking difficult.
While accomplishing this latter movement, our guides detected two
huge red bears, an enormous distance off, enjoying themselves in
the evening air, and feeding and scratching themselves alternately,
as they sauntered about in the breeze. Abandoning our present stalk,
which was not promising, down we went again, and crossing about a
mile and a half of broken ground, snow, rocks, &c., we reached a wood
close to the whereabouts of our new game. F. and I, separating, had
made the place by different routes, and just as I had caught sight of
one enormous monster, F. and the shikaree appeared, just on the point
of walking into his jaws. Having, by great exertion, prevented this
catastrophe, we massed our forces, and taking off our hats, just as if
we were stalking an unpopular landed proprietor in Tipperary, we crept
up to within sixty yards of the unsuspicious monster, and fired both
together. With a howl and a grunt, the huge mass doubled himself up,
and rolled into the cover badly wounded. Being too dangerous a looking
customer to follow directly, we reloaded and made a circuit above him;
and after a short search, discovered him with his paws firmly clasped
round a young tree. By way of finishing him, I gave him the contents of
my rifle behind the ear, and we then rolled him down a ravine on to the
snow beneath, where, a heavy storm of rain, hail, and thunder coming
on, we left him alone in his glory. Putting our best legs foremost,
we made for our camp, amid a pelting shower of hail like bullets and
an incessant play of lightning around us, as we pushed our way along
the frozen torrent.
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