THE BUFFALO 



them to walk very quietly, as the buffaloes would be found 

 in water pools in thick forest, the country generally at that 

 time being very dry, undergoing a severe drought. 



They visited pool after pool, and sure enough there 

 were buffaloes in every one of them. The shooting while 

 it lasted was fast and furious, as the animals were, as usual, 

 well on the alert, and either fled at once or charged their 

 assailants, so that no standing shots were obtained, only 

 the snappiest of snap-shots. Between them they accounted 

 for five buffaloes. 



Mr. Robinson also recounts a curious incident in con- 

 nection with a buffalo which occurred to one of his men 

 during a trip. Some villagers had begged Mr. Robinson 

 to kill a very savage bull buffalo which usually lurked in a 

 forest near their village, and had made itself the terror of 

 the place, so he and a friend made their way to the place, 

 and arranged to have the animal driven out of its jungle 

 haunt. 



Having posted themselves in convenient places the beat 

 commenced, with much shouting and yelling, suddenly 

 culminating in a perfect pandemonium of yells coming 

 from a certain point, and followed by dead silence. 



Robinson and his friend waited in anxious expectation, 

 and were presently surprised to see a party emerging from 

 the jungle carrying an evidently wounded man. It turned 

 out that the buffalo had charged back at the beaters, and 

 this man, being in its direct path, had sprung up and 

 caught hold of a branch of a tree, but before he could 

 draw himself out of reach the bull was on him, making a 

 vicious thrust at him with its horns, the point of one 

 actually piercing clean through one of the man's feet. 

 The bull got away, and was not again seen near that village. 



149 



