268 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



meantime, his faithful Kruman shikari had rushed to his aid, and, 

 fearing to shoot lest he might wound his master, he fired both 

 barrels right and left in the air, close to the ear of the assailant, in 

 the hope that it would be frightened by the sound. This had not 

 the slightest effect. Throwing away his useless rifle, he drew a 

 long and extremely sharp hunting-knife, and seizing the bull by the 

 soft and pendulous dewlap, he held it tight, and with one desperate 

 drawing cut across the throat he reached the spine. As the blood 

 rushed from the several arteries the bull fell struggling upon the 

 ground, and when, after considerable delay, assistance was obtained, 

 Julian Baker was carried to his ship, where for nearly three months 

 he was laid upon his back, with a vivid recollection of his first 

 interview with the " Bos brachyceros." The head of that animal, 

 carefully prepared by Mr. Rowland Ward, the well-known naturalist 

 of Piccadilly, is now among my collection. It is very small, and 

 delicately shaped, differing entirely from all other varieties of the 

 buffalo, and exhibiting its connection with that species only by the 

 peculiar shape and texture of the horns. If such a struggle had 

 taken place with an ordinary buffalo, the strongest man would 

 have been killed almost instantaneously, without the chance of 

 escape. 



The Bos Gaffer is about the same in size and shape as the 

 Indian variety, but differs in the shape of the head and the forma- 

 tion of the horns. All the Bos tribe are more or less savage, but 

 the African buffalo is a peculiarly ferocious brute, especially when 

 wounded. 



All buffaloes delight iu swampy plains, where they can obtain 

 rich pasturage of the coarsest description, that would not be eaten 

 by ordinary cattle ; they love to wallow in the mud during the 

 mid-day sun, and to lie in shallow pools with only their heads 

 above the surface of the water. A buffalo appears to have only 

 just escaped the classification of amphibious. The love of water 

 becomes an actual necessity, as the buffalo, although so useful as a 

 beast of burden, or for draught purposes, requires a rest during the 

 hottest hours of a tropical day, to enable it to bathe, and roll itself 

 in the dearly beloved mud ; without which it would refuse to work, 

 and would ultimately lose condition. 



The buffaloes of Italy and Egypt retain the original type of 

 their Oriental race, but they have dwindled in size, and have lost 

 both length and weight of horns. There cannot be a better 

 example of a theory than this animal, as it has been domesticated 

 for so great a length of time that we are enabled to observe the 

 peculiar changes effected by local peculiarities. This proves that 



