BLUE BULL STALKING. 53 



a hundred yards off. I need hardly say that by this 

 time the herd were in confused flight, not knowing 

 whence the danger threatened. 



" But it's not a bull," I answered, for I could see 

 no horns. 



"Atcha, sahib, byle " (yes, sir, it is a bull). 



This statement, and the large size of the beast, 

 convinced me I was mistaken ; so I fired, and, though 

 I struck it, it continued to move off. The left barrel 

 dropped it, but it got up and moved slowly on. 

 Reloading as I went, I ran swiftly after it. As I 

 reached the top of a low hillock, I saw it descending 

 just in front of me. Aiming over the root of the tail, 

 I sent it rolling to the bottom of the slope, and 

 following it up I found as I had now realised a 

 remarkably large, fine cow. She made an abortive 

 effort to charge me, but I soon put her out of her 

 misery and returned to look after the bulls. To my 

 intense disgust I could find neither, and my assistants 

 seemed not to have taken the least trouble to ascertain 

 what had become of them. 



I was greatly provoked, as I have the strongest 

 objection both to killing the female of any harmless 

 game, and to wounding any animal and failing to 

 bring it to hand. Every circumstance combined to 

 increase my annoyance on this occasion. The cow 

 when cut up proved to be in an interesting condition, 

 and contained two fully developed calves. Further- 

 more, my shikari reported that he had seen a bull with 

 a broken shoulder in an adjoining jungle the day after. 

 A very small amount of common sense on the man's 



