INDIAN SHOOTING 351 



signalled up at once, as the half-hour's rest will spoil the run, 

 but the sportsman should be careful that the dogs are not 

 slipped till the buck is well clear of the herd. The best way is 

 for the sportsman to have the dogs brought up to him, then 

 ride ahead, the slipper running after him with the dogs in leash 

 till the buck begins to gallop ; then have the dogs slipped and 

 ride the buck, halloaing on the dogs till they are fairly laid on. 

 If he has no dogs he will be able to get within three hundred 

 yards of the buck before the latter really starts, and then he 

 must send him along ; after about half a mile he will find that 

 he can get within twenty yards, but no nearer. A few hundred 

 yards farther the buck will begin to falter and then suddenly 

 throw himself down, and the sportsman can either spear him 

 or dismount and knife him the buck has run himself out. 

 With Express rifles, unless a buck is hit in the leg, he will give 

 no run at all ; with a body wound he can't gallop any distance, 

 though he may give trouble if pursued on foot. The bucking 

 bounds which antelope make are very peculiar (no wounded 

 animal ever bucks). The distance covered may be only a few 

 feet, the animal jumping apparently to get a good view, but 

 when the deer are galloping, the distance covered in a bound, 

 apparently made without effort, is extraordinary. Major 

 FitzHerbert paced three successive bounds of a doe on 

 softish sand ; two measured eight yards and the third seven 

 yards. 



A buck slightly wounded in the leg will occasionally give 

 a grand run. In 1875 Major FitzHerbert shot a buck through 

 the hock without breaking the bone. Mounted on a fast Arab, 

 he rode this buck for a mile and a half without being able to 

 get up to him, as the buck led over a succession of gram fields 

 where he was able to keep along the narrow headlands while 

 the horse had to plough through the clods. Finding that he 

 was, if anything, losing ground, the rider pulled up, and the 

 buck stopped and lay down in a patch of grass. The attend- 

 ants then came up with a couple of deerhounds, which were 

 slipped at the buck with a good start, but could not run into 



