66 SAMBHALPUR BISON NEPAL 



As I could not walk 10 yards, I saw but little 

 prospect of realising my desire. Moberly was 

 much adverse to my attempting it, quite rightly 

 insisting that it was 100 to I on my inflaming my 

 knee and 100 to I against my getting anywhere 

 near a bison. But my entreaties and his excessive 

 good-nature combined resulted in the maddest 

 wild-goose chase after bison the shikar world has 

 ever seen. The Dewan of Patna State, a good 

 friend of mine, had sent his pony some fifty miles 

 across country and placed it at my disposal. The 

 little chap stood about 12 hands and clearly re- 

 sented carrying 12 stone. He did it for two days 

 and then expressed his feelings by curling up 

 suddenly like a collapsible toy and refusing to 

 carry me any farther. I thought the mad chase 

 was perforce ended, but the resourceful Mrs. 

 Moberly at once produced, and insisted on my 

 using, her dandy, which is a sort of chair slung 

 between two poles. In this I continued the pursuit 

 till it became difficult to turn in the jungle; so 

 finally I transferred my aching bones to a charpoi, 

 or native bed, and so devotedly did my beloved 

 jungli men work that we never lost touch with 

 the bison, and the junglis actually performed 

 the extraordinary feat of working me up to within 

 500 yards of the bull. Those who know the extreme 

 difficulty of stalking bison in saal woods over 

 crackling dry leaves will agree that it was a 

 wonderful performance. I believe I should have 

 got that bull, but, alas ! a traveller (unknown to 

 us ; and himself unconscious of intrusion) crossed 

 the jungle between us and the bison, and the bull, 

 like De Wet, stampeded through the line, and with 



