BISON SHOOTING 



bamboo jungle, open tree forest, and dense thickets, 

 while on his way to the lick, or he may find none 

 until he has reached the latter situated probably 

 either in an open glade on flat ground, or in the 

 bank of a deep nullah. The salt-lick will be found 

 ploughed up by the tracks of bison, elephant, sam- 

 bur, and spotted deer ; and possibly the huge pugs 

 of a tiger close by, made as he lay in ambush, will 

 show how well aware the tyrant of the forest is 

 of the habits of the animals upon which he preys. 



These resorts are well known to the jungle men 

 who act as the sportsman's guides, and usually, 

 if bison are anywhere in the vicinity, they visit a 

 lick nightly during wet weather, in order to eat 

 some of the salt earth. 



It sometimes happens that there are several such 

 licks only two or three miles apart, and it may be 

 necessary to visit more than one of them before fresh 

 tracks are found. It is generally worth while to 

 follow a track made any time during the previous 

 night, provided only that it be found fairly early in 

 the day say before 1 1 a.m. and the jungle men are 

 very expert in estimating the time which has elapsed 

 since a track was made. This is a very much more 

 difficult matter than might be supposed, and even 

 the best trackers are occasionally at fault. 



I remember a very striking instance of this. I 

 was in camp in a forest lodge called Rampore 

 (in the Ainurmarigudi forest in Mysore), situated 

 close to the bank of the Noogoo river. It was 

 in the south-west monsoon, and the weather was 

 very wet. We left camp early one morning, and 



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