EXPERIENCES WITH A CAPTURED GA UR 93 



reeds and bamboos, over which earth and dry leaves were 

 scattered. The smell of the fresh earth, however, turned them 

 off. Once a gaur got his fore-feet down the side of the pit, 

 but made a bold jump and cleared it. 



" After some months the tracks of a large herd were found 

 making for the pit, and it turned out that a gaur had fallen 

 in, but had managed to jump clean out again. It was evident 

 8 feet was not deep enough, and rock in the bottom pre- 

 vented its being sunk deeper. Another pit was therefore dug 

 some distance away on the same boundary. The ground was 

 on the side of a steep hill, so that whilst the lower wall was 

 10 feet, the upper was 14 feet deep. 



"After a while a cow gaur fell in, but whilst Mr. Martin was 

 watching her, and waiting for coolies to help in putting logs 

 across the pit, she managed to scramble out ; and although 

 she followed the path to the old pit, she avoided it and escaped. 

 Two days afterwards a bull fell in and was secured. Getting 

 logs across the top of the pit, with the gaur charging madly 

 about, was exciting work, but the feat was successfully accom- 

 plished only after the utmost difficulty and danger. The 

 appearance of any one near the pit always caused a furious 

 demonstration on the part of the gaur, who dug big caves in 

 the side of the pit with his horns, and thus an approach to 

 the edge was rendered dangerous. In ten days' time he had 

 become somewhat tame. He tossed about the grass thrown 

 in to him and trampled it into the mud, eating but a small 

 quantity. His only drink was water poured into the pit, and 

 which collected in the holes he had made in the mud with his 

 feet. Matters were very little improved by having bundles of 

 grass lowered by a long piece of cane fastened round, for he 

 charged them furiously, and got a lot of the grass on the 

 ground only to trample it into the mud. 



" By degrees he began to eat more and to throw less about. 

 Water was a great difficulty : any attempt, too, at lowering a 

 bucket to him was futile, and only ended in the bucket being 

 flattened out. It became imperative, therefore, to get him 

 out of the pit. To attain this end, a stockade about 30 

 feet square was made round the pit, consisting of stout poles, 

 15 feet high at the lower, and 10 feet high on the higher 



