BLUE-BULL SHOOTING 55 



the west of the valley and place him behind the ridge 

 up to which it ran, with the main road behind him. 

 I would enter the valley by the gorge, while the 

 beaters went to the east and beat it right along. 



Before the beaters reached me, I saw an animal 

 moving up the valley far above me. My glass soon 

 showed it to be the bull, and I felt sure that I should 

 not get a shot. However, I ordered the beaters to 

 stand still and hurried towards him, taking advantage 

 of every possible bit of cover. Of course, it was no 

 use ; before I was within two hundred yards of him he 

 moved on again, only to halt right on the sky-line. 

 Very fine he looked, the position increasing his nat- 

 ural size, which was about that of an Alderney bull. 

 Presently he moved slowly over the ridge and was 

 lost to sight. 



Almost immediately, and as I had expected, I heard 

 a shot, followed in a minute by another. I hurried up 



to the crest, where I found Mac and the shikari^ 



but no bull. Mac told me that the brute had 



commenced to descend to his right. When it was 

 nearly parallel with him he fired, and it at once broke 

 back. Remembering, doubtless, that I was behind him 

 it again made downwards, this time to his left. Again 

 he fired, but the bull did not stop and was lost to 

 their sight. Without waiting for the beaters we 

 hastened in pursuit. Not a hundred yards on we 

 found the bull lying under a small tree stone-dead. 

 He was the finest I have ever seen, his winter coat 

 being nearly black, while in summer they are of blue- 

 grey. One horn was nine inches long ; the other, 

 being splintered, was somewhat shorter. Jerdon, in 

 the ' Mammals of India,' gives the length of the horns 

 from seven to nine inches, so this is an extreme 



