TRACKING. 55 



down hill. But Jeetoo persisted that he would take up- 

 wards, so I gave in to his superior knowledge of woodcraft, 

 in which he was seldom at fault ; consequently I had the 

 mortification of seeing the stag leave the cover almost at the 

 spot I had intended posting myself. He made straight for the 

 thick forest below, in which he disappeared from our sight. 

 We followed at once on his tracks, feeling quite confident 

 that, as he was so hard hit, we should soon overtake him. 

 We came up with him several times, and got so close as to 

 hear him crashing away through the bushes, but, owing to 

 the dense cover, without getting even a glimpse of him. 

 Here we had made another mistake in following him up 

 too soon instead of allowing him time enough to lie down, 

 when in all probability he would have given an easy chance 

 for a shot. 



For the greater part of three days did we slowly and 

 perseveringly follow him, often finding clots of gore where 

 he had stopped to rest. Jeetoo's tracking powers were 

 truly astonishing. Sometimes, after losing all traces of the 

 slot for hours, where it had led over rocky ground, my 

 sinking hopes would be revived by his drawing my attention 

 to an almost invisible speck of dry blood on a twig or a 

 blade of long grass against which the animal had brushed 

 in passing. The stag, however, baffled all his skill, and we 

 were at length most reluctantly obliged to abandon the 

 pursuit, where the tracks were irretrievably lost among a 

 number of those of other deer, with which they had got 

 confused. 



Many a cold night-watch did old Jeetoo and I have to- 

 gether for game, although they were not often attended with 

 success, as such work is very uncertain. 1 Something is, at 



1 For night work I have found the following a good method of aligning the 

 sights on an animal. Stretch a broad bit of white tape along the rib of the 

 barrels between the back and the fore sights, binding it at either end on the 

 rib with a bit of thin twine whipped tightly round the barrels. Commence 

 aiming with the tape well in sight, and with the muzzle-end of it rather 

 above your object. Then gradually depress the muzzle on to the point you 



