300 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



was full of game tiger pugs, buffalo, mithan, 

 elephant, and sambur tracks showed fresh on the 

 sand as I proceeded up the river in the early morning, 

 and round every corner there was the chance of 

 seeing something to shoot at. All the same, in spite 

 of what the ground showed, it was seldom you did 

 see what you wanted. The only chance to get a sight 

 of buffalo or bison was to visit certain " chupras," as 

 they are called open glades, sometimes some two or 

 three miles in extent, where the grass had been burnt 

 by the " Mirri," as the natives of those parts are 

 called. There, if you had the luck to sight a solitary 

 bull buff 1 or mithan, you might, with luck, stalk him 

 and get a shot. Having got your shot and hit 

 your bull (it is not often that you kill him with one 

 bullet), off he goes straight for the nearest cover, 

 where he lies up if in anyway hurt. Then the bull- 

 fight takes place. Your Mirri tracker takes up the 

 trail, where you have lost sight of your beast. You 

 should for this game be shod with indiarubber ; your 

 clothes must be of dark, dirty green, with not a speck 

 of white showing. With an interval of ten or fifteen 

 yards, you follow your tracker. The bull generally 

 takes one of the game paths which meander about 

 the forest ; noiselessly you follow your tracker, with 

 rifle at the ready. Suddenly there is a snort and a 

 crash from one side or the other. The old bull has 

 left the path, run a few yards back on you, and laid 



1 Herds of either species are hardly worth the trouble of pursuit, as the cows 

 are always on the alert and in the way, especially in the case of buffs. They 

 jumble up together, and it is hard to pick out the bull as they go. 



