BISON JUNGLES 75 



We went back to the " bungalow/' as Ganpat 

 called the little tent, and had to send eight miles 

 for coolies to skin the bison and bring in the head. 

 The servants asked permission to go and look at 

 him and said they thought it was an elephant ! 

 The head was not brought in until next day. Four 

 men carried it tied on to a pole, like the pictures 

 of Canaan grapes, and they said it was a big load. 

 None of the men knew how to skin it and it was 

 already smelling rather high, but the Portuguese 

 cook, Jeronimo, said he would try, and he and I 

 did it between us. The skin at the back of the head 

 and neck was enormously thick, and I asked Jeronimo 

 why he was cutting off so many beefsteaks, as we 

 only wanted the skin, but he showed me that all 

 he was doing was skinning and as thinly as possible. 



We went out again another day early too early 

 and walked right into a herd of bison that were sleep- 

 ing peacefully. They seemed to be getting up all 

 round us and made off in the darkness. I stupidly 

 fired at one that I thought I could make out on the 

 skyline as looking very big, and found afterwards 

 that I had killed a cow, which was a very grievous 

 thing. 



This is a terrible jungle for the small Kanara tick. 

 In walking through dry grass one gets literally 

 covered with them, from head to foot. They are 

 tiny things, about the size of grains of pepper, 

 ground pepper, and one looks as if one had shaken 

 the pepper pot over one's body. Each little beast 

 gets his head well in under the skin and is very 

 difficult to get off. Nothing seems to keep them off ; 



