"I went bear-hunting a week ago. Three hundred beaters with drums and trumpets, the sound of which re-echoed tenfold in the rocky valleys, and close on thirty hunters, who completed a circle of several miles, and secured our quarry. Two drives were arranged, each of which lasted from two and a half to three hours. "After leaving Sinaja about five o'clock I climbed the first summit, Furnica, which I reached at seven. It was just here that a large she-bear had killed several sheep three days before, and devoured them at a short distance from the shepherds, who looked on trembling. I posted myself at this point behind a rock overlooking two deep ravines. The drive then began, accompanied by the penetrating cries of the beaters, who descended the slopes on all sides in an unbroken chain. Suddenly the sky clouded over and a terrible storm broke, so that you could not see ten paces before you. As nothing was to be seen after a wait of two hours we sought refuge in a hut; in a short space of time the weather cleared up, and the pretty Prachova valley lay at our feet bathed in the brightest sunshine. "This change in the weather encouraged Elisabeth and her ladies to leave Pojani Zapului, whither she had driven that morning, and proceed to meet me with the luncheon. After I had sat three hours in the hut waiting for the bear, or rather the luncheon, the latter arrived about noon, and we sat down to it together on a greensward; the hunters and beaters, the Dorobanzi and their horses camped round about us. All the groups were indescribably picturesque; in the background the bare rock summits of the Kairaman, Omul, &c., appeared like veritable ghosts. At two o'clock we again descended to Pojana Zapului, a little village at the entrance of the _valea babei_, the rendezvous of the bears. I separated from Elisabeth here, and climbed down into this haunted valley, where we came across a primeval wood. Again I found a position which overlooked two ravines. The greatest bear-hunter of the neighbourhood was close to me, and assured me that I should catch sight of some bears. I waited patiently for close on three hours behind a decayed tree; the cries of the beaters had long since died away, single shots were heard in the distance, a portion of the beaters had finished their task, and still nothing was to be seen. I laid my rifle aside discontentedly, but the huntsman whispered to me to have patience for another half-hour. I took up my rifle, and ten minutes had barely sped when I heard a loud rustling, stones rolled down the sides of the ravine, and two young bears crossed our field of sight, and one after the other descended the slope, breaking the rotten boughs with their broad paws. The