294 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



almost into the wind, and as quickly falls away again into the nexfe 

 bend of the channel. Seven times mnst the helm be shifted in a 

 cable's length of that pass; but with the seventh turn we float out 

 of the foam into a deep, calm, little harbour, where the palma 

 hang almost over the water, and our trip down the coast is over. 



THE INDIAN BISON, WITH SOME NOTES ON 

 STALKING HIM. 



BY J. D. IXVERAEITY. 



(Read at the Society's Meeting on 1st October 1839.) 



My first introduction to the Indian Bison was in the pages of 

 " The Old Forest Ranger/' when I was a very small boy. My youth- 

 ful imagination was so excited by the account of the bull, who is 

 there described as coming" on at headlong speed, his tail on end, 

 his bloodshot eye rolling in the frenzy of madness, his tongue 

 lolling far out of his mouth, and the white foam flyiug from his 

 distended jaws, that I there and then determined that when I grew 

 up I should do little else than shoot bison, and though circumstances 

 have prevented my carrying out that intention to its fullest extent,, 

 I have spent several hot weather vacations in the pursuit of that 

 animal; and I propose in this paper to give a brief outline of its 

 habits, supplemented by some observations as to the mode of 

 bringing him to bag. Sportsmen in the early part of this century 

 do not seem to have known much about bison. No mention what- 

 ever is made of him in Captain Williamsons " Field Sports/' the 

 second edition of which was published in 1819. In Dr. Johnson's 

 Sketches of Indian Field Sports, he says " there is also another 

 species of animal in Ramghur called Gour, a kind of wild bullock 

 of a prodigious size, not well known to Europeans. I have never 

 obtained a sight of them, but have often seen the prints of their feet, 

 the impression of one of them covering as large a space as a 

 common china plate! " 



In the Oriental Sporting Magazine of July 1829, there is an 

 account of what was evidently Biscn shooting under the title of 

 " Bffalo Hunt," and the quarry are alluded to throughout as 



