122 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



loaders, and tliougli I liad another rifle it was a little 

 behind, leaning against the tree, and before I could get 

 hold of it nothing but the sterns of the " beeves " (as a 

 friend used to call them) were to be seen. When I 

 got it I favoured the bull with both barrels a posteriori, 

 but there was no result. The young Thakiir, who 

 occupied the post on my right, had been more success- 

 ful ; and when the beaters came up immediately after- 

 wards I found a fine four-year-old bull lyiug dead, with 

 two of his bullets throus^h the centre of his neck. All 

 the gans now came dropping in, and gathered in a group 

 round the slain bison. One had seen a bear, another a 

 couple of sambar, and so on. All had fired, and of 

 course hit hard, but the net result was the Thakiir's 

 beeve, my sambar, and two little "jungle sheep," as 

 they are called, the proper name being the four-horned 

 antelope.'^ 



I had never seen a bison before, and though this 

 was only a young chestnut-coloured bull with small 

 horns, I was much struck with the bulk and expression 

 of power belonging to the animal. Such was the wddth 

 of the chest that when .lying on the side, the upper fore- 

 leg projected stiff and straight out from the body, 

 without any tendency towards the ground. The head 

 in particular has a fine highbred and withal solemn 

 appearance, which is still more noticeable in old bulls. 

 From the eye of a newly slain bison, turned up to the 

 sunlight, comes such a wonderful beam of emerald light 

 as I have seen in the eye of no other animal ; and the 

 skin emits a faint, sweet odour as of herbs. 



We tracked the wounded s;imbar and bison a little 

 way down the valley, the former showing signs of being 

 * Titraceroa qiiadriroynis. 



