Jungle By- Ways in India 



desirable that one should be armed with a heavy 

 rifle. The option is often given you of firing (and 

 this after a long hard stalk, mind) at a small black 

 patch a part of the animal, but what part it is 

 often almost impossible to decide, or of not firing at 

 all. Now it is cruel to take this chance of wound- 

 ing the animal with a light rifle ; for there is 

 no certainty of bagging him under those con- 

 ditions, and a lightly or even badly wounded 

 bison will go miles. If, however, you are pro- 

 vided with an 8-bore, or a '4oo-'45o, or -500 

 cordite rifle, you may take a sight on the part 

 you see in the almost perfect assurance that 

 you will bag the beast, as the shock to the system 

 from these rifles, provided you hit him in the body, 

 is so great that he rarely gets very far. It is 

 true that you have to look out for a charge, 

 for if not hit in a vital spot the brute will still 

 have plenty in him to make things lively enough 

 for you. 



My friend, whilst climbing up after his bison 

 into the hills, for the animal had left the maidan 

 grass areas at dawn, had remembered our 

 conversations, and they flashed through his 

 mind as he topped the bank and spotted his 

 quarry. Without further ado he blazed into him 

 with the right barrel of the 8-bore. 



' I was knocked head over heels ' (he is a fairly 

 big, heavy man) ' down the bank, both barrels 

 (twenty drams) having gone off together. The 



172 



