BAG A COW GAUR 213 



jungle. Scarcely any blood on the trail at all ; we came 

 upon the two together twice, but did not see them, only 

 heard their rush. At length took up the track of one, and, 

 after going some distance, found it was the wrong one ; so 

 back we went again, came upon the right track, put the brute 

 up three times, and at last found it dead. My ball had struck 

 it a little too high and a little too far back, just over the hip- 

 bone, but it had gone in a slanting direction all but through 

 the body, being only retained by the skin at the shoulder. 

 You would scarcely suppose that any animal could have 

 moved after receiving such a wound as that, yet this creature 

 led me a dance for upwards of three hours. Certainly the 

 gaur grow very much larger in Burma than in India ; this 

 was a cow, and she was 19 hands, or 6 feet 4 inches, in fair 

 measurement, from heel to the top of the dorsal ridge. Now 

 a very large bull killed by me in India was only of the same 

 size, and an immense old fellow that I saw killed in the 

 Wynaad was only two inches higher. 



" Got back about noon, the sun furious till about two, when 

 it came down a deluge. When they went back for the meat 

 of the cow the following day, they found a tiger had drawn it 

 away, and as he growled alarmingly at their intrusion, the 

 shikaries wisely let him keep the beef, but I, fortunately, had 

 taken the tongue and head away with me, and uncommonly 

 good the former was, too, to eat." 



The above graphic description of sport on foot in Burma is 

 by one of the most accomplished sportsmen I ever knew. 

 But we learn the following : That all sights on a rifle should 

 be screwed down to the rib to prevent shifting. This I have 

 always insisted on in my own weapons and advocated in my 

 writings. And the second is never move in the jungle with- 

 out carrying your own weapon : I have known so many 

 chances lost by transferring for a time your weapon to a gun- 

 carrier. I could not myself trudge through the jungles unless 

 I carried my own rifle. Use is second nature. Had the 

 sights been true, the General would doubtless have killed an 

 elephant or two and a couple more gaur, or bison, as he calls 

 them. Had he had his rifle in hand, he would doubtless have 

 added the tiger to his bag. 



