CHAPTER IV. 



INDIAN BUFFALO SHOOTING. 



I LOOK upon this animal, if not as the most 

 dangerous, certainly as one of the most formidable of 

 thejfenE natures. They are not only very savage, but 

 very treacherous, and most difficult to kill. A 

 solitary bull is invariably morose. He will lie in wait 

 in a dense patch of grass and attack anything that 

 comes in his way. He is if anything worse than a 

 rogue elephant. Baldwin, of the Bengal 39th, author 

 of Large and Small Game of Bengal, was attacked 

 by a wild bull buffalo, whilst out small game shooting, 

 near Loqua-Ghat, and all but killed. Just a year 

 afterwards, whilst out with Sir Charles Reid, I was 

 charged by a bull, in almost the same locality, and 

 that without any provocation. We were on elephants 

 and were well armed, and he paid for his temerity 

 with his life. He looked a fiend incarnate as he 

 charged out at me, as I was passing by a patch of 

 long grass in which he was hiding. Neither the 

 Assamese nor the Burmese keep any entire bulls, but 

 trust to the wild ones to keep up the breed. There 

 is therefore but little difference, if any, in size and 

 ferocity between the so-called wild and tame cattle. 



