4U THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDLA. 



The smaM-bore rifle of our predecessor in these hunting- 

 grounds was probably the cause. Her horns were of 

 full cow length, the pair measuring eight feet four inches 

 round the curve and across the skull. 



The herd was now clean gone, of course, in the 

 meantime, and we turned towards camp. On the way 

 B. shot a cow, and I wounded a bull, and lost him in 

 the long grass. While smoking our pipes after break- 

 fast, one of the men who had remained to look after 

 the wounded bull came in to say that he had been 

 found lying down in an open plain, about a mile away, 

 looking very savage. We sallied forth immediately to 

 encounter him, and found him lying close to a little 

 ridofe that had been the embankment of a rice field 

 when the country was cultivated, and was now over- 

 grown with tall grass. He had taken up a position 

 which commanded all approaches, and, as there was no 

 cover, there was nothing for it but to march up on foot. 

 When within about sixty yards I took a shot with a 

 small rifle, on the accuracy of which I could rely, at his 

 broad forehead reclinino; on the bank. But the anHe 

 was wrong, and the ball glanced off without injury to 

 the bull, who sprang on his feet and retreated to the 

 middle of the field. The dogs were now loosed, and 

 bayed round him till he began to chase them all round 

 the field ; but as soon as our heads appeared over the 

 fringe of grass, he left them and charged down at our- 

 selves. There was no sort of shelter, and every one had 

 to look out for himself. I stood till he was within about 

 half-a-dozen paces, and then jumped out of his course in 

 the grass, not a moment too soon, my rifle being whirled 

 out of my hands and its ramrod broken. Kecovering it, 

 I fired the undischarged barrel into the back of his 

 shoulder, and at the same time the report of B.'s rifle in 



