CHAPTER IV. 



REMINISCENCES OF BISON SHOOTING 

 MY FIRST BISON 



IT seems a long time ago, that memorable day, 

 on which, for the first time in my life, I beheld 

 the mighty gaur in the flesh ; still, though it is now 

 many years since the occurrences which I am about 

 to relate happened, every incident and each scene 

 are as fresh and clear-cut in my mind's eye as if 

 but one month had elapsed since the eventful 

 episodes impressed themselves indelibly upon my 

 memory. I was a keen sportsman, but my 

 experiences had been confined chiefly to small 

 game, and, though I had made some attempts to 

 bag large game on foot in a country on the north- 

 east frontier of India, where high grass and lofty 

 reeds, matted and almost impenetrable tree jungles 

 and deep swamps render shooting on foot well-nigh 

 impossible, I had as yet bagged no single head 

 thereof, with the exception of one spotted deer 

 which had but very recently fallen to my rifle in 

 Mysore. 



In May, 1882, I was at the Travellers' Bungalow 

 of Goondulpet, in the Mysore district, detained by 

 a heavy cold from proceeding into the forests for 



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