THE BUFFALO 



statue. Getting tired of this, the sun being deadly hot, 

 I decided to fire, and debated whether to give him a solid 

 body-raker or a soft-nosed ball in the throat. I chose the 

 latter, and, taking careful aim with my " Savage," fired for 

 the centre of the neck. At the shot the bull capered about 

 a bit, and I put in two more body shots, whereupon he 

 trotted slowly off, along a strip of dry land, into the middle 

 of the swamp. The cows and calves remained, restless 

 but huddled together, and at once prepared to resent our 

 approach when we tried to pass them to follow the bull ; 

 so, as he stood full broadside to me about 250 yards away, 

 I lay down and put a solid into his shoulder. At this he 

 walked slowly into the water, until only his head showed 

 above the surface. 



I could easily have got close to him then and polished 

 him off, but this did not suit the villagers, all Moham- 

 medans. They wanted it killed on dry land to enable 

 them to cut the throat orthodox fashion and secure the 

 meat, so suggested I should go round the swamp to the 

 opposite side and they would drive it across to me. Round 

 I and Cameron then went (I had returned to the others 

 for a palaver when the bull went into the water), and the 

 small mob of men drove away the cows and made their 

 way into the swamp as close to the bull as they could get, 

 and hurled sods and abuse at him, but he would not budge 

 an inch. They then borrowed a small Winchester carbine 

 of the Mudaliyar's and began blazing at him, but as they 

 were 50 yards away and could only see about half his head, 

 I think they only hit him about once in a dozen shots, and 

 of that he took no notice. Getting sick of this I waded 

 into the swamp waist deep as far as I could get, and came 

 to a dry patch from which I could just see his horns and 

 the back of the head above the water about 200 yards 



H7 



