the fear of being attacked themselves that
induces them to injure man. I have a friend
who had a most terrific tussle with a bear which
he had wounded with shot. The bear closed
with him, and he fought the bear with his knife,
giving and receiving terrible wounds. At
length my friend got away, and crawled for
some distance till he obtained assistance.
But he will bear to his grave, the marks of his
enemy's teeth and claws. The following story
was recently told me by the gentleman who
met with the adventure: He had a pony which
was very much attached to him, and very gentle
with him, but which would not allow any one
else to mount him. He was given to flying at
and biting strangers, a quality which turned to
the advantage of his owner. One morning my
friend was on the march through the jungle, his
coolies and servants following with his baggage,
guns, &c., and he walking with his pony's bridle
over his arm. It would appear that a bear was
just then regaling himself in the pathway, by an
ant-hill which concealed his interesting figure
from the traveller's view until close upon him.
Suddenly the gentleman felt himself thrown
down, with the bear on his back pawing and
scratching him. Knowing that there were four
loaded guns in the hands of his attendants, he
called out to them to fire, and at the same time
struck backward at the bear with a stick which
lay within his reach. No one fired, however,
and he did not know what to do, when suddenly
he heard a scrimmage; next moment the
weight was removed from his shoulders, and on
looking up he saw the bear in full flight, and the
pony after him with his ears set back. He got
up and shook himself, and saw his guns lying on
the ground; his attendants had all disappeared.
He was about to retrace his footsteps, when
he heard several voices saying "Here we are!"
and on looking up, he saw his people perched
high in the trees. They told him that the pony
had flown at the bear with such fury, that he
had taken to his heels in the manner described.
Moral. There is some good in a biting and
kicking pony.

There is a certain gentleman in Ceylon who is
a great sportsman. I do not know him myself,
and therefore do not make more particular
allusion to him; but he had the following adventure,
and it was related to me by a mutual friend,
who authorised me to repeat it. This gentleman
was one day crossing some water on foot,
to get a shot at an elephant; his gun was in the
hands of a man who was going round the shore.
As he walked along, something lay in his way
which he imagined to be a log of wood, so he
stepped over it. No sooner had he placed one
leg over it than the log appeared suddenly to
become imbued with life, and he found himself
across the back of an alligator:—probably more
alarmed even than himself at being thus mounted.
The alligator immediately rushed off. The rider,
as soon as he recovered his presence of mind,
took a header into the water, and escaped.

I alluded in a former paper to an alligator
which had killed two persons not far from where
I write, and who was constantly on the watch
for bathers. I am happy to say he has been shot.
The particulars of the manner in which
he killed the two men have been communicated
to me. A gentleman in the public service was
bathing within an enclosure. A Singhalese
gentleman of rank was also bathing without
the enclosure; a native attendant filled a vessel
with water and handed it to him; suddenly the
man who had brought the water was gone;
and the two bathers saw him with half his
body in the water, at some distance, throwing
up his arms and apparently articulating
something. All at once he sunk. They imagined at
first that he had been carried off by the current,
but subsequently the body was found in a
mutilated state. A few days afterwards, seven pilgrims
were standing knee-deep in the same river; the
alligator passed six of them, seized the last, and
dragged him away from among his companions.

At Batticaloa a girl was bathing on her bridal
morning, when an alligator seized and carried her
off. A friend of mine succeeded in shooting the
brute, and found within him parts of the girl,
and her bangles, or arm-rings.

Sharks are occasionally caught with the
remains of human beings within them. Not long
since, one was exposed for sale in the bazaar at
Colombo, in which was found a white hand; a
poor soldier had been buried at sea the previous
day, and it is believed it had belonged to
him. I remember rather a pretty little discussion
arising between two Singhalese men, the
one the buyer, the other the seller, of a shark.
The price paid for it was twenty rix dollars, or
one pound ten. When the purchaser was cutting
it up for sale, he found inside the stomach, the
leg of a man. Thereupon people declined
purchasing any pieces, and the shark remained on
the man's hands. So he demanded that the
seller should refund the one pound ten. "No,
no," said he; "had you found in the fish a bag
full of money, you would have claimed it as
yours and given me none." The bystanders
gave a verdict against the purchaser, and he
had to make the best of his bargain.

A RENT IN A CLOUD.

IN TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER XVIII. TIDINGS FROM BENGAL.

I AM not about to chronicle how time now
rolled over the characters of our story. As for
the life of those at the villa, nothing could be
less eventful. All existences that have any claim
to be called happy are of this type, and if there
be nothing brilliant or triumphant in their joys,
neither is there much poignancy in their sorrows.

Loyd wrote almost by every mail, and with
a tameness that shadowed forth the uniform
tenor of his own life. It was pretty nigh the
same story, garnished by the same reflections.
He had been named a district judge "up
country," and passed his days deciding the
disputed claims of indigo planters against the
ryots, and the ryots against the planters. Craft,