NEVER BE WITHOUT A RIPLE IN HAND 279 



When I started out from camp at dawn to shoot I was 

 invariably accompanied by three men, viz. my head-tracker, 

 who carried my lightest rifle, a bag of cartridges, and a pair 

 of binoculars, a second hunter who carried my heavy 8-bore > 

 and a third man with eatables, a leather chagul or water- 

 bottle, and any other necessary article. The sportsman should 

 himself travel as lightly as possible, but should always have a 

 rifle of some sort in hand when after game. 



I remember once travelling listlessly through some very 

 open country sparsely wooded here and there by bamboo 

 clumps, accompanied by my hunters, at about 10 a.m., a 

 blazing sun overhead, with only a light walking-stick in my 

 hand, never for one moment expecting to see any game, when 

 a huge solitary bull gaur got up within fifteen paces from behind 

 a bamboo clump, where he had been having his mid-day siesta, 

 and with a snort dashed down a declivity and disappeared 

 from view behind a piece of rising ground before I had time 

 to even put the rifle, hastily snatched from one of my men, to 

 my shoulder. One is sure to meet with disappointments like 

 this if a rifle of some sort is not carried. Of course there are 

 times when there is no possibility of seeing any game, but it 

 is always best to be on the safe side. An experienced tracker 

 will warn you at once when to be prepared for a shot. Your 

 shooting-boots should then be discarded for a pair of light 

 rubber, tennis, or other shoes, in order to be able to stalk up to 

 the animal noiselessly. The snapping of the smallest twig, 

 the rustling of a few branches, or, in fact, any sound out of the 

 common would startle the quarry at once. Should you be 

 wearing a hard Ellwood's helmet or " shikar " hat, it should 

 be exchanged for a soft fore-and-aft peaked cap at once, as it 

 is then easier to bend about through the shrubs and trees 

 without noise, whereas the sounds made by branches and 

 leaves against a hard hat are audible a long way off. 



There are three means of transport available in most districts 

 of Upper Burma, viz. mules, carts, and carriers, or porters as 

 they are called in Africa. Mules are certainly to be preferred 

 when obtainable, as they are very handy, carry three times as 

 much as any single porter, and can cover twice as much 

 ground over hilly country in a shorter space of time. They 



