by Ruskin Bond
Could he have lost sight of her, and is he making for the place he last saw her in, from the rock, in the fond hope that she is still there? Not much fear of his taking those all-seeing eyes of his off her for a single second. I soon saw his little game; there was a huge rock some 30 feet to the rear of the fox and he meant to get that between him and her as soon as possible. A slight pause of a few seconds and as the fox did not look up, he moved stealthily forward and got on to a rock and very slowly peered over. The little fox still merrily went from hole to hole, noising each, oblivious of all danger, and as she turned her back for a second, I saw a sight I shall never forget.
The panther had been looking over the rock at the time, with his fore paws resting on it and his hind feet on the ground below, and yet from that non-jumping attitude, he sprang clear 20 feet or so down, and looked for all the world like a shooting star. This spring and a rush and he was behind the coveted rock, but what in the meantime had alarmed the fox? She was not looking in his direction, but rather down the hill and below him,.yet "pheaw pheaw-aw-aw" came her long warning cry.
I could no longer see the panther now, but knew he was only waiting for the fox to turn her head, and she was as good as dead, and then, perhaps I might have a chance of a stalk after him. The fox looks this way and that, undoubtedly alarmed, but unaware of the cause of it. Some wonderful instinct warning her to be on her guard, for what else could it be that alarmed her? Had it been some sound the feline made, or had she got his scent, she would have run off some distance away from either, before turning to "pheaw," but it is something in no way located, yet she is aware in some vague way of the presence of danger.
It comes too; as she turns her head there is a mighty rush, and a something with the speed of a falcon is on her, almost before she has time to look back, but there again, that something has befriended her, and with a sudden whisk of her tail, and a twist that my eye could not even follow, she has evaded those relentless talons, and somehow doubled under the panther's legs and is flying for life down the hill, to find cover in the birch jungle below. Strangely enough the panther never even attempted to follow, but accepted his defeat, and sat down on a rock and watched the fox racing down the hill. I could hear the "pheaws" coming up from the forest below, for a long time after.
I carefully changed my position and getting into a dip of the hill crawled round till I got a ridge in between myself and the feline, and then ran as hard as I could for a spot I marked out in my mind as being within 100 yards of him, and arriving there, stalked very carefully over, till I could get my eyes just over the top, but he was "non est".
High and low I searched, but not a sign of him could I find and as night was fast approaching, I had to make my way back to camp, and leave him.
II
In the meantime, while I interested myself in the panther and his doings, Isabeline and her cubs had wandered out of sight, and I saw them no more for some time to come. I had rather wondered at the bears giving their note of alarm for a panther, and I do not suppose that a solitary one would have bothered his head much about him one way or the other, but with a mother with tiny cubs, it is different, as Mr Spots would not hesitate long about making a meal off a cub if he got the chance, and Isabeline had long ago taught Devil and Food to be careful of his scent, and warn her at once should they come across it.
I have already said that I had wanted to capture the cubs and have them as pets, but one cannot go and shoot an animal one has taken an interest in for over a month, in cold blood, though I have no doubt, had I seen her with the cubs the first time she came out, I should not have thought twice about it. The next time I came across them, the summer had given place to late autumn, the sheep had left the alpine pastures, the flowers had bowed their heads to the cutting winds, and the glorious verdant carpets on which Devil and Fool had been wont to play had assumed a sombre brown. In the valley below, the birch and maples had clothed themselves in their golden tints, and lower still could be seen the brilliant scarlet of the Virginian creeper clustering about the dark green of the spruce and silver-fir.
The scene in all its wonderful variety of colours, even though it lacked the vivid greens of spring, defied description. Above, the grand old giants reared their virgin snow-capped peaks into the clear blue sky, and in the gorge, just below that mighty peak, a glacier grim, glistened with blues and greens as the rays of the morning sun touched it.
Well might Isabeline be proud of her lovely haunts, and loth to leave them till the bleak winter winds and hard frosts which made digging impossible, drove her down to more sheltered nooks. The hardy "bhurrel", the blue sheep of the Himalayas can alone face those icy blasts, and appears to revel in the blizzards that howl round his inhospitable, rugged peaks.
As soon as the frost sets in, and even Isabeline's great claws and forearm can make no impression on the hard ground, she thinks of looking about for a sequestered home in which to spend the winter. A cave beneath an overhanging rock, or the hollow at the root of a tree, which will keep her warm and dry and yet permit the passage of fresh air, are selected with much care, for her long winter sleep. She will enter it a fat tubby ball, almost round, and issue four to five months later, simply skin and bone, but the possessor of a lovely coat.
It was in late October, when I came across Isabeline and her cubs. The latter were now well grown, and to catch them would have been no easy matter, so I was obliged to give up all thought of it, but my interest in them had not abated in the slightest and I was as ready as ever to watch them at their play. Determined to find out their hibernating quarters, I used to be up on their feeding grounds before the sun touched them and on the first occasion contented myself by watching them leave for the trees, as the day advanced, through my glasses. But that proved a fruitless watch, as I lost sight of them as soon as they got into the forest.
The next time, some ten days later, I decided to follow them, but the ground being caked and hard with frost, I had the greatest difficulty in seeing their tracks, and lost them entirely in the forest, where they went over a succession of rocks and boulders. The following week a light fall of snow came to my help, and the morning after it, I made my way up to her favourite ravine and was just in time to see her and the cubs disappearing into some birch jungle. There was no mistaking their tracks now, and on hands and knees I crawled after them among the dense tangle of branches which being bent down year after year by the winter snows, grow down instead of standing up straight.
Careful not to get too near or disturb them in any way, I carefully avoided each branch, either stepping over or crawling under it. Thus I must have covered over a mile, and was thankful to find myself getting into more open cover, the birch giving place to oak and pine. All this time I had not got a single glimpse of them, though I know from the tracks that I was very near. Under one tree I found marks of the mother's claws, where she had raked up some twigs and branches, preparatory to lying down for the day, but had changed her mind and moved on. This at all events meant that she would not go very much further and it behoved me to be all the more careful, in case I stumbled on to her unawares from below, in which case she might charge and tend to make things nasty, in defence of her cubs.
I had my trusty rifle with me, but there are times when it is difficult to be quick enough with it, and this might be one of them. Carefully, with one eye on the tracks and the other on the ground ahead, I plodded on, removing every twig that chanced in my way, and to my joy I at last came to where the tracks began moving downhill. This gave me a much better command of the position and also enabled me to see further. A bear, brown or black, if he selects a tree to sit behind, will almost invariably sit on the upper side and not below it, so I should now have a chance of seeing the family from some distance if they meant to sleep under a tree and not go into a cave, which at this season, however, was unlikely.
On the other hand, this would not help me to find, their hibernating quarters, but having come so far, I intended to continue now, wherever th
ey went, and follow them. A tragopan gave me the first intimation of their exact whereabouts, for not 50 yards ahead, I could hear his plaintive cry as, disturbed by their approach, he rushed up the hill uttering his curious single note. This meant that I could hurry on for a few paces, as a spur divided us, and any noise I made would not reach them, but I must be careful, not to frighten the tragopan unduly and make him fly, as that might put the bears on the qui vive.
The bears had not wasted their time while seeking their place for the mid-day siesta, as over-turned stones and logs of wood testified, and in one place I had to make a dive into some undergrowth to avoid a nest of angry jungle wasps, whose home had been ruthlessly torn out and their winter store of honey robbed by the furry marauders ahead.
A musk-deer near whose lair they passed, stood up and gave his cry of alarm—"fitch fitch"—at intervals of a few seconds, and so engaged was he in looking at the bears, that I got to within 30 feet of him, and could see his gleaming white tushes and saw him stamp his foot, as he "fitched" and wagged his little scut.
One ear was held forward and the other twitching back and fro, alive to every sound. I crouched behind a stump and very gently "fitched" in return. In a second his head turned in my direction, and he stood staring intently, not being able to make it out, the very embodiment of grace and daintirNess. I dare not alarm him or he might go racing off down the hill in his succession of jumps, a mode of locomotion, peculiar to the little beasts, and yet I must get him away from here, before I could move myself, and in the meantime, the bears were getting further and further away "Fitch fitch" I said to him and "fitch sh sh" was his reply, and a violent stamp on the ground. A second "fitch" from me was too much for his nerves and had the desired effect. With half a dozen dainty little bounds, all four legs rising and falling at the same time, he fled up the hill and with a final "fitch" disappeared from view behind some rocks.
Again I moved forward and, climbing a small rise over which the tracks led me, looked down on an expanse of melting snow and at the foot of it saw Devil and Fool playing hide and seek. Glancing at the tracks, I could see that they had not troubled to walk down, but had simply glissaded or rolled the whole way to the bottom. Even Isabeline had become playful after her slide, for, as one of the cubs ran round her, she got up on her hind legs, her great fat forearms swaying from side to side, and gave vent to a loud snort ending up with a tremendous puff as though blowing bubbles.
Little Fool rushed up and also got on to his hind legs in front of her, and the pair promptly set to work to do a little boxing, but Devil did not see why he should be left out in the cold, and made for poor Fool. A fair spar, with the mother as umpire, ensued, but as usual it did not last long and ended up in close grips and a roll in the snow. Devil's honour was satisfied and once more the trio started off up the opposite hill, and I had to sit where I was till they went round the next spur, and once more took up the trail from the next ridge.
I had been most fortunate all this time in having the wind blowing down hill, but it was now time for it to change. In the Himalayas the wind usually blows down the valleys from 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon till 8 or 9 a.m. the following morning, and uphill for the rest of the day, but this fact would not trouble me so long as the bears kept to the contour of the hills, but if they suddenly went down a valley I should be discovered at once if I attempted to follow, so in that case I would have to wait till they had climbed up the other side.
As I topped the crest I found before me a ravine covered with a forest of spruce and silver-fir, and now left convinced that this was the place the bears had been making for, and would now lie up under some old forest giant. Nor was I wrong. Just below me was the tree they had selected for their seista the previous day, but now they had gone down lower, and I must be cautious as they might come to a halt any moment. I crawled along a few paces and was pulled up sort by hearing a twig crack, and peeping round the trunk of a tree, I espied Isabeline busy making up a snug bed for herself, and both the cubs interestedly watching operations.
Foiled in my hopes of seeing their winter quarters I took my sandwiches out of my pocket and proceeded to replenish the inner man, and at the same time keep an eye on the bears. Having removed any stones or hard twigs from under her, the old lady sat up on her haunches and had a good look all round, with her nose well to the wind. Satisfied that all was well she thought about attending to her toilet. A great big hind paw began very deliberately scratching the back of her head and, that done, she lay down with both her fore-paws in front of her and surveyed her huge white claws. Devil still had something on his mind and went down a little way to investigate the roots of another tree, but Fool sat down alongside his mother and getting his hind foot into his mouth, was busy for the next ten minutes sucking it, making an extraordinary gurgling the while. Devil too came up and joined the other two, and half an hour from the time they arrived there everyone was sound asleep, bunched close together. Even though I had seen them settle themselves, I could not make out where one began or the other ended. They looked like one great brown stone except for the fact that every now and again a puff of wind stirred the hair on one of their backs. There was nothing now left for me to do, but to get back home, but before doing so, I would give them a chance of winding me, to see if they kept their noses open even in sleep.
Going back over the spur I had just come over, I descended to their level and quietly got some 20 yards below their tree and hid myself behind another. I had not been there many seconds, when a small head looked round the edge, the nose well in the air and working vigorously, and with a low "unf unf unf" awoke the other two. Both the cubs took to their heels up the hill but the mother waited just long enough to see that nothing followed, and then went after her sons. Their education had not been neglected, evidently, and the mother no doubt was not a little proud of her apt pupils. Had I not seen them go off I might have passed them within a few yards and never known that there was a bear within a mile of me, so quietly had they all disappeared. Fortunately for mother bear, in the Higher Himalayas there is so very little that can harm her of her young that she can instruct them pretty thoroughly as to what they should avoid.
"All man's scents are not necessarily dangerous but it is as well to steer clear of them all. That which is tainted with the smell of goat and sheep, or with that of cows and buffaloes, you need not run from, but just get out of his way and get behind a log or a tree till he has passed. If it is pure man's scent, whether he means mischief or not, fly the moment you get it, and keep to thick scrub as long as you can till well out of his reach, and then go over all the stones and rocks you can find to leave no track. If you get the smell of a panther, give me warning, and keep near me. Goats and sheep are very nice eating but do not go too near a flock while it is still light, unless you can find a straggler. Beware of a flock with which there is smell of dog, as they will bark and rouse the camp and guide the men on your scent, and you will have to give up your dinner even if you have had the luck to get it away. You will be a match for any two or three dogs, but you can do nothing when the dogs are followed by half a dozen men armed with big sticks. Buffaloes will do you no harm if you do them none, and though our cousin the black bear has no difficulty in killing them now and again, and we are stronger than he, yet he has got sharp claws with which he can get a firm hold on the back of a buffalo and so hang on till the animal becomes frantic, and falls over a cliff or breaks a leg, but our claws are no good for that sort of thing, being meant only for digging. The same applies to cows and bullocks, though when you are full grown you may be able to manage a cow, but be careful, as sometimes one or two of the bulls with the herd may charge, and in the open, he will get the best of it. A wheat crop is a very pleasant place to spend a night in, but if grazing is good in our own haunts eschew such luxuries, as they are often fraught with danger, and if it is known that we make raids on the crops, a man with a gun may be there in hiding to receive you one night. Keep to your own lovely feeding grounds, and
follow the instructions I have so often drummed into your heads and you will live to be as old as you desire, but remember that curiosity killed the cat, and will be the end of you, if you are not very careful."
The advice was good, and though curiosity was Devil's besetting sin, he was getting over it as he grew up, and after the one or two frights his mother gave him, began to learn that it was enough for him to discover the presence of danger through his nose, without trying to see it as well.
Eighteen months went by, and I had not been able to visit the haunts of Isabeline again, but I had heard of her and the cubs, now grown almost as big as herself, from shepherds and others who had spent the preceding summer near her. Three bears always together, had been frequently reported to me, but no one had ever feared of them attacking sheep, but of late, one huge beast had also taken up his quarters and he had done a good deal of damage among the flocks.
The villagers had begged me to go up and shoot him, and one old man who had been with me on two or three occasions when I had followed up Isabeline and had thought me crazy for not having shot her instead of going miles and miles for the sake of "looking" at her, was careful to inform me that it was not the mother with cubs that the villagers referred to.
It was June ere I got a chance of paying the dear old haunts a visit. Devil and Fool would now be 28 months old and well able to look after themselves. Would I still be able to tell one from the other and when I did see them, would I forget all past associations and shoot on sight, or would I be as eager to watch their antics as of yore?
The second day after arriving on the scene, two bears were seen on a plateau some distance from camp, but too late in the evening to permit of my making a closer acquaintance on that day. Next morning I left camp before it was light and found myself far up on the highlands ere the first streaks of dawn touched the peaks ahead, and shortly after, my glasses revealed one solitary bear, and, if size was any criterion, the veteran who had done the damage among the flocks. Half an hour's careful stalking brought me to within a few yards of where I had last seen him and a cautious look round showed him sitting on a patch of snow, meditating over his many misdeeds.