WILD CATTLE 99 



hours, and was so benumbed that all I did was to take a step 

 or two and then measure my length on the grass ; every one 

 got away. 



The marrow-bones and tongue of a gaur are a bonne bouche. 

 I am told that the flesh on either side of the so-called hump 

 along the dorsal ridge, where it is in three layers, is very good, 

 especially the middle piece ; but I cannot say that I ever 

 partook of it. The tail makes excellent soup ; the hide, when 

 cured, is very good for soling shooting boots. In hilly districts 

 there are depressions somewhat like small nullahs, where a 

 species of white clay impregnated with natron is found ; and 

 wherever this exists, other conditions also being favourable, 

 you will find not only gaur, but deer and also members of the 

 felidce ; whether the latter go after the fauna, or for the sake 

 of the earth I do not know, but the natives assert that they, 

 too, partake of the earth, and have pointed out to me their 

 droppings in which some of this has been evacuated with 

 portions of hide and hair of animals. 



On one trip in Burma we noticed numerous marks of Tsine 

 in a quin about two miles from our camp. Close examination 

 showed that the cattle were in the habit of resting during the 

 heat of the day in a tope of trees lying in the centre of the 

 quin. So I determined to try and circumvent one of these 

 wary brutes. Getting up at 3 a.m., we walked through the 

 long grass, getting to our destination soaking wet, and there we 

 had to sit shivering with cold till past ten o'clock before the 

 beasts put in an appearance. At last two or three cows 

 leisurely feeding along came in sight, but the bull did not 

 appear till close on mid-day, and it was fully an hour later 

 before he got within shot. I then fired behind the shoulder, 

 and as he fell to the shot I blazed into a cow, and she too 

 dropped, but the bull picked himself up and went off* full 

 score. I followed, and the cunning brute very nearly had me, 

 as he hid in a patch of long grass and charged me as I passed. 

 I had just time to throw myself behind a prostrate tree, as he 

 cleared it and fell into a deep nullah on the other side. There 

 I had no difficulty in despatching him. In the evening I 

 came across a herd of gaur ; they got up out of a heavy patch 

 just in front of my elephant. I fired at one going away, tail 



